SPIRITISM; 


THE 


Origin  of  All  Religions. 


- 


BY 


J      P .    DAMERON, 

Author  of  "The  Dupuy  Papers"  " Devil  and  Hell"  and  "  The  Evil  Forces 

in  Nature" 


SAX    FRANCISCO,    CAL. 

Published  by  the  Author. 
1885. 


OP  TBB 

UNIVERSITY 


LVERSIT- 

7  a  i  #  / 

ClLIFC 


PREFACE 


In  presenting  this  little  book  to  the  public,  I  must  ask  the  kind  indulgence 
of  the  reader,  for  it  has  been  the  work  of  my  leisure  hours;  a  recreation  of 
the  mind  from  the  dry  details  of  law,  which  teaches  us  to  deal  with  facts 
according  to  law,  and  to  reason  out  its  relations  with  the  many  conflicting, 
interests  of  mankind.  In  trying  to  trace  out  the  origin  of  these  laws 
customs  and  usages,  it  has  led  me  far  back  into  the  night  of  time,  when  man 
emerged  from  the  obscurity  of  barbarism.  Like  the  explorer  of  some  great 
river,  as  he  ascends  he  beholds  the  stream  branching  off  into  many  little 
rivers,  and  they  grow  less  and  less,  until  at  last  he  finds  its  source  in  some 
far-off  mountain,  fed  by  the  melting  of  the  snows  or  springs  that  gush  from 
out  the  granite  rocks. 

So  it  is  with  law  and  religion,  they  both  come  from  the  invisible  source — 
the  mind  of  man.  One  teaches  him  his  relations  to  his  fellow-man,  and  the 
other  to  his  Creator ;  one  relates  to  his  social  nature,  the  other  to  his  moral 
and  spiritual  nature.  They  are  closely  allied  and  have  much  to  do  with 
each  other,  the  religious  status  of  a  people  having  had  much  to  do  in 
shaping  their  government  and  civilization.  Where  a  liberal  religion  has 
prevailed  the  laws  have  partaken  of  its  nature  and  the  people  prospered 
and  were  happy ;  when  illiberal  it  has  tyrannized  over  man  and  made  him 
a  slave  to  caste  and  priesthood. 

In  all  religions  there  are  good  moral  precepts,  and  if  man  would  live  up 
to  them  he  would  be  wiser  and  better,  but  his  animal  nature  is  so  strong 
that  it  often  tempts  him  to  violate  them  ;  but  they  act  upon  and  tend  to 
restrain  him.  It  is  contended  by  some  that  man  could  not  be  governed 
without  a  religion.  It  makes  but  little  difference  what  a  man's  religion  is,  if 
he  be  honest  and  will  respect  the  rights  of  another.  No  one  should  say, 
"  My  religion  is  orthodox  and  yours  is  heterodox ;"  we  should  all  be  willing 
to  let  every  one  worship  God  in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  his  own 
conscience,  for  we  are  all  in  the  fog  and  know  but  little  of  the  life  to  come. 
We  now  and  then  catch  a  stray  bit  of  evidence  that  goes  to  confirm  us  in 
the  belief  of  the   immortality  of  the  soul.     It  comes  like  the  whispering 


voice  of  spirits  and  angels,  to  tell  us  that  we  are  immortal  and  will  live 
beyond  the  grave.     Is  it  our  imagination  ? 

Whence  come  these  thoughts  ?  Did  we  inherit  them  from  the  teaching 
of  our  ancestors  ?  They  had  no  better  evidence  of  the  facts  than  we  see 
around  us  every  day.  They  tell  us  these  things  happened  thousands  of 
years  ago,  in  benighted  Asia,  among  people  just  emerging  from  savagery, 
who  had  no  knowledge  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  geography,  astronomy, 
geology,  chemistry,  botany,  biology,  etc.  They  believed  the  world  was  flat; 
that  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  moved  around  the  earth ;  that  the  earth  was 
created  in  six  days ;  that  man  was  made  of  dust,  and  that  God  breathed 
the  breath  of  life  into  him ;  that  he  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon  him, 
and  took  a  rib  out  of  his  side  and  made  it  into  a  woman. 

These  infantile  stories  of  the  creation  of  man  and  the  remarkable  revela- 
tions made  by  God,  are  conflicting  and  bear  upon  their  face  the  evidence  of 
exaggeration  and  credulity.  The  evolution  theory  has  swept  from  us  the 
myth  of  Adam  and  Eve  and  the  eating  of  the  forbidden  fruit  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden,  which  does  away  with  the  necessity  of  a  redeemer  and  the  vicari- 
ous atonement  and  original  sin.  It  has  opened  our  eyes  to  the  knowledge 
that  there  is  no  one  standing  between  us  and  our  Creator;  that  every  one 
must  work  out  his  own  salvation  and  be  his-  own  savior,  answering  for  his 
sins  according  to  the  law  of  compensation ;  that  the  laws  of  nature  are 
unchangeable ;  that  the  same  force  that  shapes  a  dewdrop  will  round  a 
world ;  that  suns  and  stars  float  in  space,  and  are  held  in  their  place  by  the 
same  law  that  guides  the  earth  in  its  course  around  the  sun ;  that  spring 
comes  to  gladden  the  earth  and  make  it  green ;  that  winter's  frost  robes  it 
in  a  white  winding  sheet  of  snow ;  but  the  vegetable  world  is  not  dead,  it  is 
only  asleep  to  blossom  again. 

Will  man  live  after  death  ?  This  is  a  question  that  has  time  and  again 
been  asked  by  the  most  learned  sages  and  philosophers  of  all  ages.  Men 
have  sacrificed  their  lives  to  prove  it,  they  have  been  deified  and  churches 
and  temples  have  been  reared  to  honor  their  sainted  names,  and  a  vast  mul- 
titude of  humanity  bowed  down  in  their  praise.  Still  it  is  an  open  question, 
and  one  that  is  hard  to  demonstrate.  The  only  evidence  we  have  is  what 
Spiritism  has  been  able  to  give  us,  but  it  is  so  conflicting  that  men  of  science 
differ  as  to  the  value  of  its  evidence,  and  the  only  solution  to  the  question 
is,  each  one  must  investigate  for  himself,  in  a  spirit  of  fairness  and  candor, 
and  he  will  find  much  that  will  convince  him  of  the  fact.     I  have  examined 


> 8 

the  religions  of  all  ages,  and  I  find  that  it  had  its  origin  in  the  same  intelli- 
gent force  one  hears  in  the  mysterious  rapping,  the  tipping  of  the  table,  the 
invisible  pencil  writing  on  a  slate,  the  trance,  the  clairaudient  and  clairvoy- 
ant mediums,  which  is  the  only  solution  to  all  the  stories  we  have  read  about 
gods,  angels,  ghosts  and  devils,  that  have  ever  manifested  themselves  to 
man ;  and  the  object  of  this  book  is  to  show  that  Spiritism  is  the  origin  of 
all  religions ;  that  all  the  knowledge  of  the  life  beyond  has  come  to  us 
through  the  same  channel,  whether  it  purported  to  be  from  gods,  angels, 
saviors,  prophets,  seers,  inspired  men,  or  mediums ;  it  is  one  and  the  same 
thing  under  different  forms  and  different  names,  in  different  ages  and  differ- 
ent countries. 

The  object  of  the  author  is  not  to  attack  any  religion,  but  to  give  a  fair 
and  impartial  statement  of  facts,  that  will  remove  the  veil  that,  for  ages,  has 
mystified  man  and  shut  him  out  from  the  knowledge  that  he  is  a  part  of  the 
divine  mind,  and  if  he  will  but  listen  to  his  better  nature  he  can  hold  con- 
verse with  those  who  have  preceded  him,  which  will  take  away  all  fear  of 
death  and  damnation  and  fill  the  heart  with  hope  and  joy. 

J.  P.  Dameron. 

San  Francisco,  California,  April,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Chapter  I — Spiritism 5 

It  is  a  New  Religion;  it  is  American  and 

Democratic,  and  in  keeping  with  the 

Progress  of  the  Age  in  which  we  Live. 

The  Leading  Scientists  are  Divided — 

Some    are    Materialists,     others    are 

Avowed  Spiritualists 7 

Chapter  II 10 

Occultism — A  Hidden  Force  in  Nature 
called  the  Astral  Light,  the  Soul  of 
the  World,  the  Primum  Mobile,  the 
Grand  Arcanum  of  Transcendental 
Magic,  the  Tetragrammaton  of  the 
Hebrews,  the  Thot  of  the  Egyptians, 
the  Azoth  of  the  Alchemist,  the  Akasa 
of  the  Hindoos,  the  Secret  lost  to  the 
Masonic  Fraternity  in  the  Murder  of 
Grand  Master  Hiram  Abiff,  Theopse, 
Destiny,  Occult  Fraternity. 

Akasa,  or  Life  Force 16 

Wonder-Workers  of  India 17 

Destiny < 22 

An  Occult  Fraternity 22 

Chapter  III 24 

Soul  of  the  Universe  (Anima  Mundi). 
Ether,  Psychomancy,  Plato  and  St. 
Paul  on  the  Triune,  Body,  Spirit  and 
Soul,  Transmigration,  Hindoo  Idea 
of  a  Soul,  its  Origin  and  Destiny. 

Psychomancy 26 

Soul 27 

The  Soul  is  Eternal 30 

Chapter  IV 35 

Mediums,  Ancient  and  Modern.  Pro- 
phets, Seers,  Magicians,  Soothsayers, 
Astrologers,  Fortune-Tellers,  Materi- 
alizations, Raps,  Trances. 

Mediumship 38 

Materialization 42 

Chapter  V 48 

Inspiration  and  Inspired  Men,  Saviors, 

Mediators  and  Mediums. 
Jesus  Christ 49 


Page. 

Chrisna 52 

Gautama  Buddha 53 

Apollonius  of  Tyana 55 

Pythagoras 55 

Esculapius 56 

^Eschylus 56 

Xenophon 56 

Cicero 56 

Socrates 57 

Zoroaster 57 

Sosioch 58 

Confucius 58 

Chapter  VI 60 

Religion;  its  Origin,  Growth  and  Devel- 
opment. 
Chapter  VII 69 

Ancestral  Worship  of  the  Ancient 
Aryans. 

Chapter  VIII 78 

Religion  of  the  Ancient  Greeks;  their 
Gods  and  Goddesses  were  only  Spirits 
of  Departed  Sages  and  Heroes.  Their 
Mediums  foretold  the  Future  and  the 
Past. 

Chapter  IX 85 

The  Origin  of  the  Christian  Religion. 

Christianity 85 

Advent  of  Christ 85 

Chapter  X 91 

All  Religions  appear  to  have  one  Com- 
mon Origin.  The  Origin  of  the  Trin- 
ity, Cross,  Sacred  Rivers,  Madonna, 
Ark,  Deluge,  Fish  Story. 

The  Trinity 94 

The  Holy  Communion  or  Lord's  Supper      97 
The  Deluge 97 

Chapter  XI 100 

The  Eight  Great  Religions  of  the  World. 
Brahminism,  Buddhism,  Zoroaster- 
ism,  Mosaicism,  Christianity,  Mo- 
hammedanism, Laoteseism  and  Mod- 
ern Spiritualism. 


The  Rise  and  Progress  of  Modern  Spiritualism, 


CHAPTER  I. 


It  is  a  New  Edition  to  Old  Religions;   it  is  American  and  Democratic,  and  in  Keeping  with  the 

Progress  of  the  Age  in  which  We  Live. 


"Rap,  rap,  rap,  on  the  ceiling  and  floor, 

On  the  pictures  and  door; 
What  is  it  that  makes  such  a  noise  ?" 

All  scientific  investigations  point  to  the  fact 
that  the  earth  was  created  by  fixed  laws,  and 
that  it  was  intended  for  the  express  purpose  of 
developing  man.  For  in  him  heaven  and  earth 
have  contributed  all  their  best  material,  and 
worked  it  over  well  for  millions  upon  millions  of 
years,  raising  up  mountains  and  eroding  them 
down  into  the  sea.  Mineral,  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal life  changed  often  before  it  was  fit  to  be 
worked  into  man,  the  last  crowning  act  of  crea- 
tion. In  him  enters  everything,  therefore  he  is  a 
microcosm,  his  physical  and  intellectual  pow- 
ers are  the  perfection  of  nature  and  the  pride 
of  the  all  wise  master. 

Is  it  reasonable,  yea,  is  it  possible  that 
all  this  shoujd  be  done  to  make  a  superior  ani- 
mal who  should  eat,  drink  and  use  all  the 
bountiful  stores  that  nature  had  provided  in 
building  up  the  globe  as  a  fit  habitation  for  him 
that  he  should  die  and  his  body  return  to  dust 
from  whence  it  sprang;  if  so  creation  is  a  grand 
failure,  and  should  there  be  no  soul  survive 
death,  or  was  it  intended  that  out  of  him  should 
spring  another  form  that  would  retain  the  know- 
ledge and  the  individual  identity  in  a  more  sub- 
limated condition,  capable  of  further  progress. 
I  see  nothing  indicating  that  mind — intelligence 
— can  be  destroyed  or  annihilated  any  more  than 
that  of  force  and  matter,  which  has  produced 
him.  Then  this  intelligence  must  exist  in  an 
individual  form,  and  that  form  must  begin  in 
another.  On  the  investigation  of  the  phenome- 
na of  modern  Spiritualism    I  am  forced   to  ad- 


mit that  there  it  nothing  in  it  that  is  contrary 
to  the  fixed  laws  of  evolution — but  it  throws 
new  light  on  the  life-forces  of  the  universe  called 
life,  soul  and  spirit. 

There  should  be  no  conflict  between  science 
and  religion.  While  science  deals  in  facts  that 
are  demonstrable  to  the  five  senses,  and  is 
aided  by  observation,  comparison  and  deduc- 
tion from  which  a  knowledge  of  phenomena  and 
of  the  order  of  succession  is  derived.  Spiritism 
offers  to  lend  its  aid  and  assist  science  to  ex- 
plore those  hidden  realms  of  metaphysics  and 
with  the  higher  developed  senses  of  clairaudi- 
ence  and  clairvoyance  which  the  academy  of 
science  at  Paris  has  called  the  sixth  sense,  so 
with  this  higher  development  they  will  be  able 
to  go  farther  into  the  workings  of  the  human 
mind  and  bring  to  light  that  hidden  force 
called  spirit,  the  life  force  of  the  universe  that 
has  caused  matter  to  evolve  and  work  out  so 
many  changes  and  forms  in  the  physical  world. 
As  each  atom  of  matter  is  accompanied  by  cer- 
tain force  or  intelligence  that  cause  that  particle 
of  matter  to  attract  or  repel  other  particles  of 
matter,  so  that  it  knows  its  affinities  and  re- 
pels its  dislikes;  it  forms  the  minerals  in  crys- 
tals, cubes,  cones  and  prisms,  for  all  matter  is 
moved  and  governed  by  certain  laws  that  are 
acting  and  reacting  throughout  the  visible  and 
invisible  world  and  the  invisible  forms  of 
matter  are  the  most  active  and  numerous;  yet 
because  we  can  not  reach  or  comprehend  these 
operations  of  matter  with  the  five  senses  we 
cannot  say  it  does  not  exist  or  move,  but  reason 
aided  by  observation  and  comparison  is  forced 
to  admit  the  fact.    We  cannot  see,  feel  or  hear 


6 


the  iron  crystalize  but  we  are  satisfied  that  it 
does  under  certain  conditions,  so  there  is  a  si- 
lent work  ever  going  on  in  the  secret  laboratory 
of  nature  that  is  beyond  the  keen  perception  or 
understanding  of  the  man  of  science,  but  which 
is  revealed  to  the  higher  developed  senses  of  the 
disembodied  spirits  and  to  those  mediums  that 
occupy  a  border  land. 

So  science  should  cease  its  hostility  and  cul- 
tivate that  intuitional  sense  of  the  inner  man 
(the  spirit)  which,  if  properly  understood 
and  trained,  would  aid  it  in  the  great  work  of 
arriving  at  the  truth,  which  would  lead  to  a 
higher  civilization  and  amelioration  of  the  hu-' 
man  race  by  expanding  the  intellect  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  spiritual,  for  the  heart  must  be  cul- 
tivated as  well  as  the  head,  for  the  inner  man 
has  much  to  do  with  the  outer  man.  And  un- 
til science  and  Spiritualism,  physics  and  meta- 
physics go  hand  in  hand  the  highest  attainments 
will  not  be  reached.  As  Joliet  says,  "while 
the  Western  Nations  have  been  following  the 
physical  laws,  the  Hindoo  fakirs  have  been  fol- 
lowing the  metaphysical  laws  of  the  spirit,  by 
which  they  can  control  and  perform  wonderful 
things  that  startle  the  European  with  wonder 
and  amazement,  while  we  can  by  our  know- 
ledge perform  wonders  that  are  as  startling  to 
them." 

That  mind  and  matter,  physics  and  meta- 
physics are  all  united  in  man  and  that  he  should 
investigate  one  as  well  as  the  other,  that  there 
is  no  dividing  line;  that  it  is  the  ignorance  of 
science  of  these  metaphysical  laws  that  shut 
the  door  in  the  face  of  the  pursuer  of  know- 
ledge, and  all  that  is  required  is  to  knock  and 
it  shall  be  opened;  that  man  is  the  beginning 
of  our  individualized  intelligence  that  never 
dies  but  follows  the  laws  of  progress  through 
endless  realms;  that  there  is  no  end  or  limit  to 
knowledge  in  this  life  or  the  higher  life  to  come 
in  the  spirit  land;  that  there  is  no  secret  in 
nature's  laws  beyond  the  reach  of  individu- 
alized intelligence  of  the  aspiring  mind. 

Science,  proud  of  her  attainments  and  justly 
so,  strong  in  her  foundations  of  laws  and  un- 
assailable in  her  primal  principles,  has  never- 
theless arrogated  to  herself  more  rights  than  she 
actually  possesses,  and  claims  not  only  to  dic- 
tate to  man  the  essential  properties  and  elements 
that  constitute  the  physical  body,    but   here   it 


shuts  the  door  against  any  investigation  of  that 
which  belongs  to  his  spiritual  nature. 

The  result  is  that  materialism  is  closely  en- 
croaching upon  the  church  and  is  fast  under- 
mining and  destroying  the  spiritual  faith  of  the 
inner  man  and  reducing  him  down  to  a  piece 
of  clay,  destitute  of  any  spirituality,  while  the 
churches  are  divided  and  making  war  on  Mod- 
ern Spiritualism,  and  invoke  the  aid  of  science 
to  demonstrate  the  fact  that  it  is  all  a  delusion, 
at  the  same  time  proving  to  the  world  that 
all  religion  is  nothing  but  a  deception;  for  if 
there  are  no  spirits  for  the  Spiritualists  there 
can  be  none  for  the  churches. 

The  greatest  difficulty  in  describing  that 
which  relates  to  man's  spiritual  nature  is  the 
absolute  ignorance  of  humanity  concerning  its 
nature.  The  spiritual  laws  have  heretofore 
been  ignored;  the  power  of  one  mind  upon  an- 
other, the  influence  of  spirit  upon  spirit,  have 
scarcely  been  considered,  while  that  spiritual 
power  by  which  Jesus  wrought  miracles  and 
spells  (and  also  his  disciples),  which  he  promis- 
ed should  be  given  to  all  who  believed  and  fol- 
lowed in  him,  has  been  wholly  blotted  out  and 
tabooed  by  the  church,  and  any  attempt  to  re- 
vive it  is  denounced  as  the  work  of  the  devil,  so 
that  religion  has  come  to  mean  a  simple  state- 
ment, a  form,  a  ceremony,  a  theory,  without  any 
intermediate  links  connecting  it  with  the  world  of 
causes  and  human  existence,  whereas  in  the  time 
of  Jesus  it  was  a  matter  of  daily  life  and  experi- 
ence and  was  so  understood  and  practiced  by 
him  and  his  disciples.  The  spirit  was  the  great 
motor  power  by  which  these  miracles  were  per- 
formed. 

The  working  of  spiritual  gifts  has  ceased  be- 
cause they  have  been  ignored  by  the  church, 
and  the  temporal  power  and  material  influence 
of  civilization,  which  has  encouraged  a  growth 
of  materialism.  Prosperity,  the  building  up  of 
states,  endowing  institutions,  the  rearing  of 
splendid  structures  and  churches,  goes  far  to 
build  up  the  material  welfare  of  nations  and 
society;  but  they  take  away  from  the  mind  those 
absolute  conditions  that  are  eccential  to  the  ex- 
istence of  spiritual  gifts — simplicity,  natural- 
ness, dependence  upon  the  unseen  and  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  higher  nature  of  the  spirits  in 
all  that  belongs  to  daily  life.  In  following  the 
material,  man  has  lost  much  of  the  spiritual  pow- 


/ 


er  that  the  ancients  had.  Though  he  has  made 
great  progress  in  the  physical  laws  of  nature 
in  the  discovery  of  steam  and  electricity,  he  has 
lost  sight  of  the  more  subtle  psychical  force 
of  mind  over  matter,  which  enabled  the  ancients 
to  divine  the  future  and  tell  the  past.  It  has 
weU  nigh  cut  humanity  off  from  all  religions 
and  made  him  a  materialist. 


The    Leading    Scientists    are  Divided — Some  are 
Materialists,  others  are  Avowed  Spri ritualists. 

Darwin  could  not  see  anything  behind  blind 
matter,  forcing  up  the  vegetable  and  animal 
life,  but  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest."  Herbert 
Spencer  thinks  that  matter  is  impelled  by  the 
active  forces  in  nature  to  evolve  all  forms  of 
life  according  to  its  environments;  Huxley  ad- 
mits that  there  is  an  "unknowable  "  force  back 
of  or  in  the  atom  that  im  pells  it  to  assume  cer- 
tain forms.  Agassiz  thought  all  matter  was 
impelled  by  an  invisible  intelligence,  but  would 
not  admit  that  it  was  done  by  the  spirit  forces, 
still  he  believed  in  a  God — a  Supreme  First 
Cause — that  caused  all  matter  to  evolve  under 
certain  laws.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
have  the  illustrious  names  of  Alexander  Aksa- 
koff,  Robert  Chambers..  Hiram  Corson,  Au- 
gustus de  Morgan,  J.  W.  Edmonds,  Dr.  Elliot- 
son,  I.  H.  Fichte,  Zollner,  Prof.  Ulriciof  Halle, 
Camille  Flammaron,  Herman  Goldschmidt, 
Dr.  Hoffle,  Robert  Hare,  Lord  Lyndhurst, 
Robert  Dale  Owen,  Victor  Hugo,  W.  M. 
Thackeray,  T.  A.  Trollope,  Alfred  Russel 
Wallace  (a  naturalist  and  scientist,  a  cotempo- 
rary  with  Darwin),  Nicholas  Wagner,  Arch- 
bishop Whately,  Pasteur,  the  author  of  the 
germ  theory,  and  Professor  Crookes,  who  stand 
high  in  science  and  learning,  all  are  firm  be- 
lievers in  Spiritism,  and  that  the  departed  from 
this  life  live,  can  and  do  return  and  hold  com- 
munication with  mortals.  These  men  have 
placed  the  mediums  under  the  strictest  test. 
Profs.  Wallace,  Crookes  and  Zollner  took  the 
mediums  to  their  own  homes  and  placed  them 
under  the  strictest  test  conditions.  On  one  oc- 
casion Mr.  Varley,  the  electrician,  by  means 
of  a  galvanic  battery  and  cable-testing  appara- 
tus, showed  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  present, 
that  the  medium  was  inside  of  the  cabinet, 
while  the  supposed  spirit  form  was  visible  and 
moving  outside.     Prof.  Crookes  says:  "  It  was 


a  common  thing  for  the  seven  or  eight  of  us  in 
the  laboratory  to  see  Miss  Cook  (the  medium) 
and  M  Kate"  (the  spirit)  at  the  same  time  un- 
der the  full  blaze  of  the  electric  light."  Wil- 
liam Crookes,  after  making  many  tests  with 
such  mediums  as  D.  D.  Home,  Kate  Fox,  and 
others,  says  that  "the  spirits  can  move  heavy 
bodies.  That  they  can  make  sounds  and  raps; 
that  they  can  alter  the  weight  of  bodies,  and 
move  bodies  when  at  a  distance  from  the  me- 
dium; raise  tables  and  chairs  off  the  ground; 
the  levitation  of  human  beings;  luminous  ap- 
pearances; the  appearance  of  hands  writing; 
phantom  forms  and  faces." 

-SPIRITISM    IS   AS    OLD    AS   THE  HISTORY   OF  MAN. 

It  appeared  to  Adam  in  the  Garden  of  Eden; 
it  directed  Noah  how  to  build  the  ark;  Moses 
saw  it  in  the  burning  bush;  the  spirits  (angels) 
often  appeared  to  Abraham,  and  at  one  time 
ate  veal  cutlets  with  him  in  his* tent;  Saul  saw 
the  spirit  (or  ghost)  of  Samuel  at  the  Witch  of 
Endor;  the  spirit  closed  the  mouth  of  the  lion 
when  Daniel  was  thrown  into  the  lion's  den; 
Jesus  saw  Moses  and  Elias  on  the  mount  of 
transfiguration,  and  they  talked  with  him;  St. 
Paul  heard  voices  and  was  liberated  from  prison 
by  them;  St.  John  had  trances  and  saw  the 
New  Jerusalem.  Take  the  Spiritualism  out  of 
the  Bible  and  it  would  be  a  tame,  dull  history 
of  the  Jews;  but  read  through  the  light  of  Spir- 
itualism it  is  full  of  interest  and  grandeur. 

Spiritism  is  the  basis  of  all  religions  and  the 
only  way  man  has  got  any  knowledge  of  a  fu- 
ture existence.  It  manifested  itself  in  the  Del- 
phic oracles  as  well  as  to  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
if  we  are  to  believe  the  Greek  authors.  Socra- 
tes says  he  received  all  his  knowledge  from  his 
little  demon  (spirit)  that  whispered  it  into  his 
ears.  The  Platonic  philosophy  was  but  little 
different  from  that  of  Modern  Spiritualism. 
Homer  is  one  grand  poem  of  the  gods  (spirits) 
taking  a  deep  interest  in  the  affairs  of  nations 
and  individuals.  The  Greeks  lived  close  to 
nature  and  held  communion  through  the  ora- 
cles with  departed  heroes  and  sages.  The  Ro- 
mans had  their  sybaline  books  and  vestal  vir- 
gins, who  held  communion  with  the  dead. 
Cicero  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  spirits,  and 
was  a  medium;  his  orations  burn  with  the  fire 
of  inspiration. 


8 


Every  age  has  had  its  spiritual  manifestations; 
every  period  has  witnessed  something  of  the 
kind;  every  fireside  has  its  ghost  story,  and  ev- 
ery family  has  something  of  its  wonders  to  re- 
late. It  is  nothing  new.  In  the  year  364,  in 
the  reign  of  the  Roman  emperor  Valen=,  me- 
diums conversed  by  the  means  of  rappings 
and  employed  the  alphabet,  as  also  the  spirit 
pendulum.  It  finally  passed  into  disrepute  as 
a  black  art  and  was  denounced  by  the  priests 
as  the  doings  of  the  devil.  Independent  slate 
writing  was  known  to  the  Chinese  over  a  thou- 
sand years  ago.  Trance  mediums  were  known 
to  the  ancient  Hindoos,  Persians  and  Greeks; 
so  was  that  of  healing,  clairaudience  and  clair- 
voyance; they  saw  and  heard  spirits. 

Christ  was  a  medium  of  the  highest  order; 
he  made  his  appearance  to  battle  against  the 
materialism  of  his  day;  he  was  invested  with 
wonderful  power  to  convince  the  wicked  world 
that  he  was  serlt  from  God  to  teach  reforma- 
tion, but  they  would  not  believe  him  but  cruci- 
fied him.  Luther  had  wonderful  mediumistic 
power.  He  saw  spirits  and  threw  an  inkstand 
at  the  head  of  an  evil  one.  The  Rosicrucians 
were  invested  with  wonderful  power  and  were 
scoffed  at  by  the  materialists  as  fanatics.  They 
led  a  most  singularly  isolated,  pure  life.  The 
Huguenots  were  persecuted  on  account  of  their 
spiritual  dissensions  from  the  Catholic  church. 
The  Quakers,  whose  leaders  were  George  Fox 
and  others,  claimed  a  revelation  from  the  di- 
vine mind.  William  Penn,  the  founder  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  one  of  its  followers.  The 
Shakers,  an  advanced  class  of  Quakers,  so 
called  from  their  shaking  and  nervous  twitch- 
ing. They  were  led  to  follow  their  peculiar 
life  of  celibacy  from  the  teachings  of  Ann 
Lee. 

In  the  more  modern  times  it  manifested  it- 
self in  Caines  and  Marvels  in  France  in  1686. 
Swedenborg  alleges  that  he  was  in  full  and  open 
communication  with  the  spirit  world,  and  daily 
conversed  with  spirits  and  angels. 

In  1829,  the  Seeress  of  Prevost  startled  the 
world  with  what  she  saw,  and  mysterious  raps 
were  often  heard  around  her. 

In  1830  the  French  mesmerists  Billot  and 
Deleuze  say  they  saw  and  felt  spirits,  and  there 
was  a  possibility  of  communicating  with  them. 

Modern  Spiritualism  had   its   origin    in  the 


rappings  of  the  Fox  sisters  and  in  the  writings 
of  A.  J.  Davis,  who  published  "  Nature's  Di- 
vine Revelations;  a  Voice  to  Mankind,"  in 
July,  1847,  in  which  he  enunciated  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution  ten  years  prior  to  that  of 
Darwin. 

About  the  same  time  in  the  little  village  of 
Hydesville,  N.  Y.,  in  a  small,  unpretending 
dwelling  lived  Mr.  Fox,  his  wife  and  two 
daughters.  Kate,  the  youngest,  about  9  years 
old,  was  the  first  medium  to  detect  and  recog- 
nize the  raps,  which  for  some  time  amazed  the 
family.  With  the  assistance  of  her  mother 
she  was  she  first  to  establish  a  system  of  signals 
by  raps,  though  they  had  been  heard  often  by 
different  persons. 

Rev.  John  Wesley's  daughters  were  similarly 
annoyed  by  a  spirit  who  answered  to  the  name 
of  "  Old  Jeff,"  but  Wesley  requested  it  to 
leave  and  let  his  children  alone;  at  last  it  dis- 
appeared, and  he  lost  the  golden  opportunity 
to  make  the  discovery.  But  the  manifestation 
of  the  spirit  attended  his  religious  revivals  in 
another  form — that  of  shouting. 

It  is  not  a  religion  covered  with  moss  and 
rust  of  past  ages,  but  one  that  is  fresh  and  new 
in  keeping  with  the  progress  of  the  age. 

IT    IS    STRICTLY     AMERICAN     AND     DEMOCRATIC; 

It  has  no  synods,  conferences  or  ecumenical 
councils,  to  fix  up  creeds  and  dogmas  to  de- 
clare what  is  the  word  of  God.  It  has  no 
priests,  bishops  or  popes,  to  grant  absolutions 
and  forgive  sins.  It  has  no  head  or  leader. 
The  medium  may  be  a  child  uneducated;  if  the 
communications  don't  bear  the  strictest  scruti- 
ny and  test  they  are  rejected.  Every  one  is 
the  judge,  none  being  required  to  believe  un- 
less they  wish;  all  are  at  liberty  to  criticize  and 
comment  whether  it  is  truthful  or  false.  The 
spirit  is  cross-questioned  and  examined,  and  if 
it  don't  stand  the  test  it  is  discarded.  It  de- 
nounces all  leadership,  all  individual  man  ivor- 
shipping,  making  every  believer  rely  solely  on 
himselt  and  seek  his  own  salvation  through  his 
own  exertions.  It  teaches  individuality — '*/ 
am  a  man  and  you  are  another."  Every  indi- 
vidual is  his  own  priest;  if  he  has  sins  he  must 
confess  them  to  himself,  and  he  must  work  out 
his  own  salvation.  It  believes  in  good  works; 
short  prayers,  for  God  is  not  captured  by  elo- 


9 


\BRA/?V 

<M?   T. 

UNIVERSITY  ] 


quent  words  and  long  prayers,  but  is  pleased 
with  a  pure  hearc  and  a  forgiving  disposition. 
Good  deeds  and  kind  words  are  worth  a  thou- 
sand prayers. 

It  is  little  over  a  quarter  of  a  century  old, 
but  now  numbers  over  25,000,000  of  believers, 
making  way  amongst  the  most  intelligent  and 
wealthy  classes — emperors,  kings  and  queens. 
Though  not  demonstrative  it  is  undermining  all 
the  older  forms  of  religion  that  had  their  ori- 
gin in  the  night  of  the  past.  It  is  a  religion 
that  is  making  rapid  progress  with  the  intelli- 
gent and  thinking  masses,  for  it  is  in  accord 
with  science  and  the  laws  of  evolution.  It 
carries  conviction  to  all  who  will  investigate  it 
with  candor  and  honesty  of  purpose.  To  the 
fair-minded  man  who  is  not  steeped  in  preju- 
dices of  the  old  theology,  there  is  evidence 
given,  if  he  will  examine,  to  convince  him  that 


there  is  an  invisible  individual  intelligence  that 
sees  and  understands  him  and  lets  him  know 
that  his  departed  friends  are  not  dead  but  pres- 
ent and  holding  converse  with  him.  The  se- 
verest tests  are  given, 'that  no  one  can  explain 
save  that  it  is  the  spirit  of  a  departedtacquaint- 
ance,  friend,  mother,  father,  brother,  wife  or 
child. 

Man  needs  not  external  revelations  but  an 
internal   illumination   whereby  he  can  under- 

j  stand  the  relations  he  sustains  to  himself,  his 
brother  man  and  the  physical  world.     Such  an 

'  illumination  is  bestowed  on,  though  not  per- 
ceived by  all;  that  myriad  hosts  of  the  angel 
world  are  around  us;  they  mingle  in  the  affairs 
of  men;    their  atmosphere   is   an   exhaustless 

;  fountain  from  which  we  draw  our  thoughts  and 

j  aspirations. 


CHAPTER  II. 


OCCULTISM. 

A  Hidden  Force  in  Nature  called  the  Astral  Light,  The  Soul  of  the  World,  The  Primum  Mobile,  the 

Grand  Arcanum  of  Transcendental  Magic,  The  Tetragrammaton  of  the  Hebrews,  The 

Thot  of  the  Egyptians,   The  Azoth  of  the  Alchemist,  The  Akasa  of  the 

Hindoos,  The  Secret  lost  to  the  Masonic  Fraternity  in  the 

Murder  of  Grand  Master  Hiram  Abiff,  Theopae, 

Destiny,    Occult  Fraternity. 

"The  power  of  thought,  the  magic  of  the  mind." — Byron. 


Cicero  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  Chaldeans 
were  among  the  oldest  magicus,  who  placed  the 
basis  of  all  magic  in  the  inner  powers  of  man's 
soul,  and  by  the  discernment  of  magic  proper- 
ties in  plants,  minerals  and  animals.  By  their 
aid  they  performed  the  most  wonderful  "mira- 
cles." Magic  was  their  religion,  and  synony- 
mous with  science. 

The  influence  of  magic  may  be  traced  in  the 
legends  of  Prometheus,  Sisyphus,  Circle  and 
Medea.  The  Greek  and  Roman  mythologies 
are  full  of  it,  and  they  had  implicit  faith  in 
their  oracles,  auguries  and  divinations.  The 
mythologies  of  the  ancient  Germans,  Slavs  and 
Celts  were  similar.  The  Druids  also  possessed 
the  secret  art.  The  crusaders  looked  upon 
magic  as  the  peculiar  ally  of  the  infidels. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  magic  arose  into 
repute  as  a  lawful  art,  and  sovereigns  maintained 
magicians  at  their  courts.  The  most  prominent 
of  these  European  magicians,  adepts  and  writ- 
ers was  Albertus  Magnus,  Roger  Bacon,  Ar- 
noldus  de  Villanova,  Daniel  Defoe  and  Eliphas 
Levi,  of  the  present  century. 

The  arts  of  magic  are  founded  upon  the  the- 
ory that  there  is  an  occult  force  in  nature  called 
the  astral  light,  the  soul  of  the  world,  and  the 
primum  mobile,  which  is  the  grand  arcanum  of 
transcendental  magic,  the  Tetagrammaton  of  the 
Hebrews,  the  Azoth  of  the  Alchemist,  the  Thot 


of  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Akasa  of  the  Hindoos. 
By  this  element,  which  abounds  in  the  celestial 
bodies  and  descends  in  the  rays  of  the  stars, 
every  occult  property  is  conveyed  into  herbs, 
stones,  metals  and  minerals,  making  them 
solary,  lunary,  jovial,  ethereal,  mercurial,  etc., 
according  to  the  planetary  influences.  *  * 
In  it  thoughts  are  realized,  and  images  of  past 
persons  and  things  are  preserved,  so  that  spec- 
ters may  be  evoked  from  it,  and  shown  to  the 
world  as  real  objects  and  things — as  sounds 
and  words  are  preserved  in  the  audiphone. 

The  adepts  in  magic  claim  that  the  sorcerer, 
or  practicer  of  the  black  art,  differs  from  the 
true  magician  as  the  charlatan  from  the  master 
of  the  art;  that  the  former  invokes  and  uses  the 
evil  force  or  bad  spirits,  while  the  true  magician 
uses  the  good  force  or  good  spirits.  According 
to  the  teachings  of  Cornelius  Agrippa,  there  are 
several  kinds  of  magic,  but  they  are  generally 
reduced  to  two:  white  or  divine  magic,  or  magic 
within  its  proper  province;  and  black  or  infer- 
nal magic,  to  which  belong  chiromancy,  the 
evil  eye,  the  command  of  the  elements  (of  evil), 
the  power  of  transforming  human  beings  into 
animals,  etc.  In  the  black,  the  magician  sells 
himself  to  the  devil;  in  the  white,  the  devil 
is  controlled  and  obsessed  by  the  magfe  ian. 

To  have  command  of  this  element,  to  direct 
its  currents  and  to  discern  its  moving  panorama, 


11 


> 


is  the  highest  attainment,  ^and  the  incompre-  the  Persian  religion,  and  when  the  Jews  returned 
hensible  secret  of  the  magician.  To  reveal  it  from  their  Babylonian  captivity,  they  brought 
is  to  lose  it;  to  impart  it  even  to  a  disciple  is  to  I  back  with  them  the  secrets  of  the  magician, 
abdicate  in  his  favor.  To  command  this  force  and  they  played  an  important  part,  and  out  of 
and  its  secrets  requires  the  highest  and  best  as  them  they  manufactured  their  devil,  or  evil  one, 
well  as  the  purest  intellect,  dauntless  courage  with  whom  they  used  to  scare  the  ignorant  into 
and  unbending  will,  discretion,  devotion,  and  ;  submission;  for  they  ruled  the  people  and  used 
habitual  silence,  and  to  be   free  from  tempta-  j  this  art  to  make  them  believe  it  was  the  work 


tions.     He  must  be  chaste,  sober,  disinterested, 
inaccessible,  free  from  prejudice  and  passions, 


of  Jehovah  ;  for  all  the  miracies  claimed  to  be 
done  by  them  were  the  same  as  those  performed 


and  without  physical  defect.     He  must  live  a   by   the   ancient    Persian  and    Egyptian  magi- 
life  of  abstinence,  having  certain  hours  formed-   cians. 

itation.     He   must  make   physical  wants  yield  i      Simon  Magus  could  fly  off  in  the  air  before 
to  those  of  the  mind;  he  must  be  able  to  live   his  disciples  and  the  crowd  of  witnesses,  with- 


on  the  scantiest  diet,  barely  enough  to  keep  soul 
and  body  together,  like  the  Hindoo  fakirs. 
It  is  claimed  by  some  that  the  key  to  this 


out  going  through  any  circle-making  used  by 
the  jugglers ;  nor  is  this  art  confined  to  the 
ancients.       Mr.    Turner,    the    author    of    the 


magical  art  was  lost  to  Solomon  in  the  death  of ;  "  Embassy  to  Thibet,"  tells  some  strange  sto- 


ries, and  he  corroborates  the  story  of  the  Abbe 
Hue  of  the  reincarnation  of  Buddha,  and  that 
of  Lahma  (priests)  sending  their  astral  souls  oft 
to  perform  missions  and  carry  messages,  what 
we  call  mental  telegraphy. 

The  wonderful  things  done  by  the  magicians 


Hiram  Abiff,  the  widow's  son,  who  was  the 
Grand  Master  of  the  Lodge,  and  since  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  other  word  the  Masons  have  lost 
the  control  over  this  occult  force,  by  which 
they  were  in  olden  times  enabled  to  work  won- 
ders, which  are  recorded  in  the  Bible  and  on 
obelisks  and  pyramids  of  Egypt.  of  Kashmir,  Thibet,  Mongolia  and  Great  Tar- 

It  is  claimed  that  Jesus  Christ  was  an  adept,  I  tary  are  too  well  known  to  need  comment.  If 
and  through  his  knowledge  he  was  enabled  to  j  jugglers  they  be,  they  have  defied  all  detection 
perform  so  many  miracles.  To  the  initiated  it  j  even  by  the  best  and  most  expert  necromancer 
was  not  strange,  but  it  was  done  in  accordance   of  Europe   and   America.     (See  Jamblicher's 

Mysteries  Egypt,  1.  26,  Theurgy.) 


with  natural  forces  and  the  fixed  laws  of  occult- 
ism. 

The  trident  of  Paracelsus  was  believed   to 


Epimenides,  the  Orphikos,  was  renowned  for 
his  sacred  and  marvelous  nature.     He  had  the 


have  all  the  virtues  the  cabala  attributes  to  the  ;  faculty  of  sending  his  soul  out  of  his  body  as 
words,  and  which  the  hierophantsof  Alexandria  '  long  as  he  pleased. 

ascribed  to  the  celebrated  word  Abracadabra .  \  Appollonius  could  at  any  time  send  his  soul 
It  gave  a  complete  knowledge  and  mastery  of  out.  He  was  a  great  magician, 
nature,  the  secrets  of  the  future,  and  the  com-  Empedoclesof  Agrigenteum,  the  Pythagorean 
mand  of  the  elementary  spirits;  to  heal  the  sick,  thaumaturgist,  required  no  conditions  to  arrest 
to  move  things  around  with  an  invisible  hand,  a  waterspout  which  had  broken  over  a  city, 
to  call  up  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  do  many  Neither  did  he  need  any  to  recall  a  woman  to 
things  that  are  now  done  by  spiritual  mediums,  life.  He  used  no  dark  rooms  or  cabinets,  van- 
The  tipping  of  tables,  raps  and  independent  ishing  suddenly  in  the  air  before  the  eyes  of  the 
slate  writing  were  all  known  to  the  ancient  Emperor  Domitian  and  a  whole  crowd  of  wit- 
adepts,  nesses   (many   thousands).     He   appeared    an 

In  the  books  of  Moses  there  are  many  instan-  '  hour  later  in  the  grotto  of  Puteoli.  He  evi- 
ces  of  the  magicians  performing  wonders,  and  dently  did  it  by  sending  off  his  astral  body, 
the  Egyptian  magicians  could  do  what  Aaron  while  his  own  physical  body  he  rendered  invis- 
and  Moses  did,  only  Aaron's  rod  made  the  big-  ible  by  the  concentration  of  akasa  about  it, 
gest  snake  and  gobbled  up  all  the  rest;  so  if  it  then  quietly  walked  out  of  the  crowd  to  some 
is  a  snake  story,  Moses'  was  the  biggest.  retreat,  where  he  remained  until  the  return  of 

These  magicians  played  an  important  part  in   his  double  or  astral  soul. 


12 


The  astral  soul  scin-lecca  (double)  is  able  to 
draw  itself  out  of  the  body  while  in  a  profound 
sleep,  and  often  travels  around  and  sees  places, 
so  that  when  the  person  is  awake  and  comes 
across  these  places  he  is  sometimes  impressed 
that  he  has  been  there  before.  Some  persons' 
visions  are  so  clear  that  they  are  able  to  see 
these  astral  bodies,  and  it  has  given  rise  to 
spooks  and  ghosts.  Some  mediums  are  able  to 
withdraw  their  astral  hands,  and  this  accounts 
for  an  extra  hand  often  witnessed  at  seances. 
Little  by  little  the  whole  astral  body  may  ooze 
out  like  a  passing  cloud,  until  two  forms  appear 
where  there  was  only  one,  the  one  more  shad- 
owy than  the  other. 

The  trinity  of  nature  is  the  lock  of  magic, 
the  trinity  of  man  the  key  that  fits  it.  It  is 
unthinkable  and  unpronounceable,  and  yet 
every  man  finds  in  himself  his  God.  "Who 
"art  thou,  O  fair  being?"  inquired  the  disem- 
bodied soul  in  the  Khordah  Avesta,  at  the  gates 
of  Paradise.  "I  am,  O  Soul,  thy  good  and 
"  purest  thoughts,  thy  works  and  thy  good  law, 
"*  *  thy  angel  **  and  thy  God."  Then 
man  or  soul  is  reunited  with  itself,  for  this 
"son  of  God"  is  one  with  him;  it  is  his  own 
mediator,  the  God  of  his  human  soul  and  his 
justifier.  "  God  not  revealing  himself  immedi- 
ately to  man,  the  spirit  is  his  interpreter,"  says 
Plato  in  the  Banquet. 

Paracelsus  says,  "The  human  spirit  is  so 
"great  a  thing  that  no  man  can  express  it! 
"  As  God  himselt  is  eternal  and  unchangeable, 
"so  also  is  the  mind  of  man.  If  we  rightly 
"understood  its  powers  nothing  would  be  im- 
"  possible  to  us  on  earth.  The  imagination  is 
"strengthened  and  developed  through  faith  in 
"our  will.  Faith  must  confirm  the  imagina- 
"  tion,  for  faith  establishes  the  will." 

Jacolliot,  the  great  writer  and  translator  of 
Oriental  literature,  says  that  "it  is  impossible 
"  for  him  to  give  an  account  of  the  marvelous 
"  facts  witnessed  while  among  the  Hindoos. 
"  The  many  strange  and  startling  things  done  by 
"them  would,  if  told,  tend  to  make  the  Ruro- 
"  peans  look  upon  me  as  a  Munchausen,  or  a 
"greater  liar  than  Sinbad  the  Sailor."  But 
adds  with  entire  truthfulness,  "  Let  it  suffice  to* 
"  say,  that  in  regard  to  magnetism  and  spiritism 
"  Europe  has  yet  to  stammer  over  the  first  let- 
"  ters  of  the  alphabet,  and  that  the   Brahmans 


"have  reached,  in  these  two  departments  of 
"  learning,  results  in  the  way  of  phenomena, 
"that  are  truly  stupefying.  When  one  sees 
"  these  strange  manifestations,  whose  power  one 
"cannot  deny,  without  grasping  the  laws  that 
"  the  Brahmans  keep  so  carefully  concealed,  the 
"mind  is  overwhelmed  with  wonder  and  lost  in 
"amazement. 

"The  only  explanation  we  have  been  able  to 
"  obtain  on  the  subject  from  a  learned  Brahman 
"with  whom  we  were  on  terms  of  the  closest 
"  intimacy  was  this  :  '  You  have  studied  phys- 
"  ical  nature,  and  you  have  obtained,  through 
"the  laws  of  nature,  marvelous  results — steam, 
"electricity,  etc.  For  twenty  thousand  years 
"or  more  we  have  studied  the  intellectual 
"  forces;  we  have  discovered  their  laws,  and  we 
"  obtain,  by  making  them  act  alone  or  in  con- 
"  cert  with  other  matter,  phenomena  still  more 
"astonishing  than  your  own. 

"While  there  are  in  the  science  which  the 
"  Brahmans  call  occult,  phenomena  so  extraor- 
"  dinary  as  to  baffle  all  investigation,  theie  is 
"not  one  which  cannot  be  explained,  and 
"which  is  not  subject  to  natural  law,  if  prop- 
"  erly  understood,  which  any  initiated  Brahman 
"could  if  he  would  explain  every  phenomena; 
"  while  our  ablest  physicist  is  not  able  to  explain 
"  even  the  most  trivial  occult  phenomenon 
"  produced  by  a  fakir  pupil  of  a  pagoda,  much 
"less  those  performed  by  an  adept." 

To  comprehend  the  principles  of  the  natural 
law  involved  in  occultism,  we  must  keep  in 
mind  the  fundamental  proposition  of  Oriental 
philosophy,  i.  There  is  no  miracle.  Every- 
thing that  happens  is  the  result  of  law — eternal, 
immutable,  ever  active.  (Apparent  miracle  is 
but  the  operation  of  forces  antagonistic  to  the 
well-ascertained  laws  of  nature,  but  are  un- 
known to  science.)  And  what  is  not  known  or 
understood  has  always  been  considered  by  the 
ignorant  as  a  miracle. 

2.  Nature  is  triune.  There  is  a  visible,  objec- 
tive nature;  an  invisible,  indwelling,  energizing 
nature,  the  external  model  of  the  other,  and  its 
vital  principle;  and  above  these  two,  spirit  y 
source  of  all  forces,  alone  eternal  and  inde- 
structible. The  lower  two,  consequently, 
change;  the  highest,  the  third,  does  not. 

3.  Man  is  also  triune.  He  has  his  physical 
body;    his  vitalizing,  astral  or  spiritual   body, 


13 


the  real  man;  and  these  two  are  brooded  over 
and  illuminated  by  the  third — the  sovereign, 
the  immortal  soul.  When  the  real  man  suc- 
ceeds in  merging  himself  with  the  latter,  he 
becomes  an  immortal  entity. 

4.  Magic,  as  a  science,  is  a  knowledge  of 
these  principles,  and  of  the  way  by  which  the 
omniscience  and  omnipotence  of  the  spirit  and 
its  control  over  nature's  forces  may  be  acquired 
by  the  individual  while  still  in  the  body. 
Magic,  as  an  art,  is  the  application  of  this 
knowledge  in  practice. 

5.  Arcane  knowledge  misapplied  is  sorcery; 
beneficially  used,  true  magic  or  wisdom. 

6.  Mediumship  is  the  opposite  of  adeptship. 
The  medium  is  the  passive  instrument  of  foreign 
influences;  the  adept  actively  controls  himself 
and  all  inferior  potencies. 

7.  All  things  that  ever  were,  that  now  are  or 
shall  be,  having  their  record  upon  the  astral 
light,  or  tablet  of  the  unseen  universe,  the  ini- 
tiated adept,  by  using  the  vision  of  his  own 
spirit,  can  know  all  that  has  known  or  can  be 
known. 

8.  Races  of  men  differ  in  spiritual  gifts,  as  in 
color,  stature,  or  any  other  external  quality. 
Among  some  peoples  seership  naturally  prevails, 
among  others,  mediumship.  Some  are  addict- 
ed to  sorcery,  and  transmit  its  secret  rules  of 
practice  from  generation  to  generation,  with  a 
range  of  psychical  phenomena,  more  or  less 
wide,  as  the  result. 

9.  One  phase  of  magical  skill  is  the  voluntary 
and  conscious  withdrawal  of  the  inner  man 
(astral  form)  from  the  outer  man  (physical  body). 
In  the  cases  of  some  mediums  withdrawal  oc- 
curs, but  it  is  unconscious  and  involuntary. 
With  the  latter  the  body  is  more  or  less  catalep- 
tic at  such  times;  but  with  the  adept  the  absence 
of  the  astral  form  would  not  be  noticed,  for  the 
physical  senses  are  alert,  and  the  individual 
appears  only  as  though  in  a  fit  of  abstraction, 
"  a  brown  study,"  as  some  call  it. 

The  astral  form  can  go  anywhere,  penetrate 
any  obstacle,  neither  time  nor  space  are  to  be 
considered;  it  moves  with  the  rapidity  of  thought 
and  the  wings  of  electricity.  The  thaumatur- 
gist  skilled  in  the  occult  science,  can  make  his 
astral  form  visible,  and  assume  protean  shapes 
and  appear  at  different  places,  and  by  his  wiH- 
power  can  cast  a  mesmeric  hallucination  over 


his  audience  so  as  to  make  them  believe  that 
what  they  saw  was  real,  when  in  reality  it  was 
but  a  picture  in  their  minds,  so  impressed  by 
him;  while  his  physical  body  seems  to  disappear 
or  assume  any  shape  that  he  may  choose.  In 
this  way  he  quietly  slips  away  and  leaves  his 
astral  body,  then  this  astral  form  suddenly  rises 
and  floats  off  in  the  air,  which  the  spectators 
mistook*  for  the  real  body. 

Swedenborgians  believe,  and  arcane  science 
teaches,  that  the  soul  often  leaves  and  abandons 
the  body,  from  various  causes,  as  that  of  over- 
powering grief,  fright,  despair,  violent  attack  of 
sickness,  or  excessive  sensuality,  and  leaves  the 
vacant  carcass,  which  may  be  entered  and  in- 
habited by  the  astral  form  of  an  adept  sorcerer 
or  an  elementary  (an  earth-bound  disembodied 
human  soul).  In  cases  of  insanity  the  patient's 
astral  being  is  either  semi-paralyzed,  bewildered 
and  subject  to  the  influence  of  every  passing 
spirit  of  any  sort,  or  it  has  departed  from  the 
body  forever,  and  the  body  is  taken  possession 
of  by  some  vampyrish  entity  near  its  own  dis- 
integration and  clinging  desperately  to  earth, 
whose  sensual  pleasures  it  may  enjoy  and  pro- 
long for  awhile. 

Magic  is  the  knowledge  of  magnetism  and 
electricity,  their  qualities,  correlations  and 
potencies,  and  their  effects  on  the  animal  king- 
dom and  man.  It  is  essential  wisdom,  nature, 
the  material  ally,  pupil  and  servant  of  the  ma- 
gician. As  one  common  vital  principle  per- 
vades all  things,  and  this  is  controllable  by  the 
perfected  human  will,  the  adept  by  the  know- 
ledge of  its  laws  can  stimulate  the  movement  of 
the  material  forces  in  plants  and  animals  in  a 
preternatural  degree,  by  using  and  controlling 
these  hidden  forces  in  nature  to  quicken  the 
conditions  of  its  nature,  and  produce  more 
rapid  results;  thus,  for  example,  make  a  plant 
mature  in  a  few  miuutes  which  would  take 
months  and  years  by  the  slow  natural  growth. 
Many  minerals  and  plants  have  within  them 
hidden  powers,  such  as  lodestone,  opium  and 
hasheesh.  The  adept  can  control  the  sensitive 
and  alter  the  conditions  of  the  physical  and 
astral  bodies  of  other  persons  not  adepts.  He 
can  also  govern  and  employ  as  he  pleases  the 
spirits  of  the  elements,  but  not  that  of  immortal 
spirit. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  seership — that  of  the 


14 


soul  and  that  of  the  spirit.  The  seership  of 
the  ancient  Pythoness,  or  of  the  modern  mes- 
merized subject,  vary  but  in  the  artificial  modes 
adopted  to  induce  the  state  of  clairvoyance. 
But  as  the  vision  of  both  depends  upon  the 
acuteness  of  the  senses  of  the  astral  body,  they 
differ  very  widely  from  the  perfect,  omniscient 
spiritual  state;  for  at  best  the  subject  can  get 
but  glimpses  of  truth  through  the  veil  *  which 
physical  nature  interposes. 

The  astral  principle  or  mind,  called  by  the 
Hindu  Yogin  Flav-atma,  is  the  sentient  soul, 
inseparable  from  our  physical  brain,  which  it 
holds  in  subjection,  and  is  in  its  turn  equally 
trammeled  by  it.  This  is  the  ego,  the  intellect- 
ual life-principle  of  man,  his  conscious  entity. 
While  yet  in  the  material  body  the  correctness 
of  its  spiritual  vision  depends  on  its  more  or 
less  intimate  relation  to  its  higher  principle. 
When  the  relation  is  such  as  to  allow  the  most 
ethereal  portions  of  the  soul-essence  to  act  in- 
dependently of  its  grosser  particles  and  of  the 
brain,  it  can  unerringly  comprehend  what  it  sees, 
then  only  is  it  the  pure,  rational,  supersentient 
soul.  That  state  is  known  in  India  as  the 
samaddi ;  it  is  the  highest  spiritual  condition 
known  to  man. 

But  when  the  body  is  in  a  total  catalepsy  of 
the  physical  frame,  the  soul  of  the  clairvoyant 
may  liberate  itself  and  perceive  things  subject- 
ively; and  yet,  as  the  sentient  principle  of  the 
brain  is  alive  and  active,  these  pictures  of  the 
past,  present  and  future,  will  be  tinctured  with 
the  terrestrial  perceptions  of  the  objective 
world;  the  physical  memory  and  fancy  will  be 
in  the  way  of  clear  vision.  But  the  seer  adept 
knows  how  to  suspend  the  mechanical  action  of 
the  brain,  by  forcing  to  stop  thinking.  His 
vision  will  be  clear  as  truth  itself,  uncolored 
and  undistorted;  whereas  the  clairvoyant,  una- 
ble to  control  the  vibrations  of  the  astral  waves, 
will  perceive,  more  or  less,  but  broken  images 
through  the  medium  of  the  brain.  The  seer 
can  never  take  fleeting  shadows  for  realities,  for 
his  memory  being  as  completely  subjected  to 
his  will  as  the  rest  of  the  body,  he  receives  im- 
pressions directly  from  his  spirit.  Between  his 
subjective  and  objective  selves  there  are  no  ob- 
structive mediums.  This  is  the  real  spiritual 
seership  in  which,  according  to  an  expression  of 
Plato,  soul   is  raised  above  all   inferior  good. 


When  we  reach  "  that  which  is  supreme,  which 
is  simple,  pure  and  unchangeable,  without  form, 
color  or  human  qualities ,  the  God — our  nous." 
This  is  the  state  which  such  seers  as  Plotinus 
and  Appollonius  termed  M  union  to  the  Deity," 
which  the  ancient  Yogins  called  Isvara  and  the 
modern  call  Samaddi.  But  this  state  is  as  far 
above  modern  clairvoyance  as  the  stars  above 
the  glow-worm.  Plotinus,  as  is  well  known, 
was  a  clairvoyant-seer  during  his  whole  life,  and 
yet  he  had  been  united  to  his  God  but  six  times 
during  his  life,  as  he  confessed  to  Porphyry. 

The  Brahmans  divide  these  powers  into  eight 
degrees  or  powers:  i,  Anima;  2,  Mahima; 
3,  Layhima;  4,  Garima;  5,  Prapi;  6,  Prakamga; 
7,  Vasitwa;  8,  Isitwa,  or  divine  power.  The 
fifth  predicting  future  events,  understanding 
unknown  languages,  curing  diseases,  divining 
unexpressed  thoughts,  understanding  the  lan- 
guage of  the  heart.  The  sixth  is  the  power  of 
converting  old  age  into  youth.  The  seventh  is 
the  power  of  mesmerizing  human  beings  and 
beasts  and  making  them  obedient;  it  is  the 
power  of  resisting  passions  and  emotions.  The 
eighth  power  is  the  spiritual  state,  and  presup- 
poses the  absence  of  the  above  seven  powers, 
as  in  this  state  the  Yogi  is  full  of  God. 

Subjective  communication  with  the  human, 
god-like  spirits  of  those  who  have  preceded  us 
to  the  silent  land  of  bliss,  is  in  India  divided 
into  three  categories.  Under  the  spiritual  train- 
ing of  a  Guru  or  Lanrizasi  the  vaton  (disciple 
or  neophyte)  begins  to  feel  them.  Were  he 
not,  under  the  immediate  guidance  of  an  adept, 
he  would  be  controlled  by  the  invisibles,  and 
utterly  at  their  mercy,  for  among  these  subject- 
ive influences  he  is  unable  to  discern  the  good 
from  the  bad.  Happy  the  sensitive  who  is  sure 
of  the  purity  of  his  spiritual  atmosphere. 

To  this  subjective  consciousness,  which  is  the 
first  degree  is  after  a  time  added  that  of  clairau- 
dience.  This  is  the  second  degree  or  stage  of 
development.  The  sensitive — when  not  natur- 
ally made  so  by  psychological  training — now 
audibly  hears  but  is  still  unable  to  discern,  and 
is  incapable  of  verifying  his  impressions,  and 
one  who  is  unprotected  the  tricky  powers  of  the 
air  but  too  often  delude  with  semblances  of 
voices  and  speech.  But  the  Guru's  influence 
is  there;  it  is  the  most  powerful  shield  against 
the  intrusions  of  the  Chritwa  into    the   atmos- 


15 


phere  of  the   vaton,  consecrated  to  the  pure, 
human  and  celestial  Pitris. 

When  a  Buddhist  ascetic  has  reached  the 
fourth  degree,  he  is  considered  a  rahat.  He 
produces  every  kind  of  phenomena  by  the  soul 
power  of  his  freed  spirit.  A  rahat,  says  the 
Buddhist,  is  one  who  has  acquired  the  power  of 
flying  in  the  air,  becoming  invisible,  command- 
ing the  elements,  and  working  all  manner  of 
wonders,  commonly  ^  but  erroneously,  called 
(tneipo)  miracles.  He  is  a  perfect  man,  a  demi- 
god. A  god  he  will  become  when  he  reaches 
Nervana,  for,  like  the  initiates  of  both  testa- 
ments, the  worshipers  of  Buddha  know  that 
they  "  are  gods." 

The  astral  soul  has  only  passed  from  the 
visible  to  the  invisible  world,  and  may  be  per- 
ceived by  the  inner  sense  of  vision,  which  is 
adapted  to  the  things  of  that  Other  and  more 
real  universe.  The  same  rule  applies  to  sound, 
as  the  physical  ear  discerns  the  vibrations  of  the 
atmosphere  up  to  a  certain  point,  not  yet  defi- 
nitely fixed,  but  varying  with  the  individual,  so 
the  adept  whose  interior  hearing  has  been  de- 
veloped, can  take  the  sound  at  this  vanishing 
point  and  hear  its  vibrations  in  the  astral  light 
indefinitely.  He  needs  no  wires,  helices  or 
sounding-boards;  his  will-power  is  all-sufficient. 
Hearing  with  spirit,  time  and  distance  offer  no 
impediments,  and  so  he  may  converse  with  an- 
other adept  at  the  antipodes  with  as  great  ease 
as  though  they  were  in  the  same  room. 

Spiritual  Life  is  the  primordial  principle 
above  Physical  Life,  it  is  the  primordial  prin- 
ciple behind;  but  they  are  one  under  their  dual 
aspect.  "  As  it  is  above,  so  it  is  below;  as  in 
heaven,  so  on  earth."  One  is  the  counterpart 
of  the  other;  one  is  spiritual,  and  the  other  is 
material  or  terrestrial. 

Magic,  in  ancient  times,  was  considered  as 
a  divine  science;  wisdom  and  knowledge  of 
God.  The  healing  art  in  the  temples  of  ^Kscu- 
lapius,  and  at  the  shrines  of  Egypt  and  the  East, 
was  always  magical,  and  the  secrets  intrusted 
only  to  the  initiated.  Then  the  priest  was  the 
medical  adviser  of  soul  and  body,  as  the  former 
has  much  to  do  with  the  latter,  as  it  is  conceded 
that  the  mind  has  much  influence  over  the  body, 
and  health  depends  on  that  of  a  sound  mind; 
therefore  to  be  a  successful  physician  he  must 
understand  both  body  and  mind,  and  the  soul 


is  embraced  in  the  latter,  and  has  control  of  it, 
which  is  immortal  and  becomes  more  active 
after  the  soul  has  left  the  body. 

The  inner  entity  of  man  is  more  or  less  divine 
according  to  its  proximity  to  the  crown — 
christos.  The  purer  and  better  a  man  is, 
the  closer  and  more  serene  is  his  life  and  freer 
from  external  dangers,  and  the  clearer  and  bet- 
ter are  his  impressions  and  his  visions  into  the 
future.  It  is  this  that  has,  in  all-  ages  of  the 
world,  convinced  man  that  an  immortal  spirit 
exists  within  him,  which  under  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, can  converse  with  angels,  who  are 
nothing  but  progressed  souls  that  at  one  time 
dwelt  in  a  physical  body.  This  is  admitted 
often  in  the  Bible,  and  by  the  greatest  philoso- 
phers of  antiquity;  and  if  it  could  then  exist, 
there  is  no  reason  why  it  cannot  now,  as  the 
laws  of  nature  never  change.  These  spirits,  or 
guardian  angels,  have  often  appeared  to  man 
and  warned  him  of  danger,  and  revealed  the 
future  to  him,  by  touch,  glance  or  word,  as 
Ammonius  tells  us.  Moreover,  Lamprius  and 
others  held  that  if  the  unembodied  spirits,  or 
souls,  could  descend  on  earth  and  become 
guardians  of  mortal  men,  "  we  should  not  seek 
to  deprive  those  souls  which  are  still  in  the  body 
of  that  power  by  which  the  former  know  future 
events  and  are  able  to  announce  them.  It  is 
not  probable,"  adds  Lamprius,  "  that  the  soul 
gains  a  new  power  of  prophecy  after  separation 
from  the  body  which  it  did  not  possess  before." 
We  may  rather  conclude  it  possessed  all  these 
powers  during  its  union  with  the  body,  although 
in  a  lesser  perfection.  Like  the. sun  it  always 
shines  bright  and  clear,  but  its  rays  are  dimmed 
to  us  when  it  passes  behind  a  cloud  or  is  ob- 
scured by  an  eclipse;  so  it  is  with  the  soul  when 
it  is  confined  in  the  flesh. 

Yet  some  persons  are  so  spiritual  that  they 
are  able  to  hold  converse  with  spirits  and  an- 
gels, by  which  means  they  are  enabled  to  get 
a  glimpse  of  the  spirit  world.  Those  disem- 
bodied spirits  that  have  progressed  and  learned 
the  laws  of  the  spirit  land,  are  more  able  to  see 
and  tell  what  the  future  results  will  be,  as  a  man 
is  better  able  to  judge  the  future  than  an  inex- 
perienced boy  is;  as  knowledge  of  cause  and 
effect  will  enable  one  to  come  at  the  result,  as 
everything  is  governed  by  certain  laws,  and  to 
understand   these   laws  is  only  finding  out  the 


16 


secrets  of  nature  that  will  enable  man  to  use 
them  and  to  advance  himself  in  the  search  of 
truth,  which  is  the  ultimate  end  of  all  research. 


Akasa,  or  Life  Force. 

It  was  Ammonius  who  first  taught  that  every 
religion  was  based  on  one  and  the  same  truth, 
which  is  the  wisdom  found  in  the  books  of 
Thoth  (Hermese  Trismegistus),  from  which 
books  Pythagoras  and  Plato  had  learned  all 
their  philosophy,  and  the  doctrines  of  the  for- 
mer he  affirmed  to  have  been  identical  with  the 
earliest  teachings  of  the  Brahmans,  now  embod- 
ied in  the  old  Vedas.  "The  name  Thoth," 
says  Professor  Wilder,  "means  a  college  or 
assembly,"  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the 
books  were  so  named  as  being  the  collected 
oracles  and  doctrines  of  the  sacerdotal  frater- 
nity of  Memphis.  Rabbi  Wise  had  suggested 
a  similar  hypothesis  in  relation  to  the  divine 
utterances  recorded  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 
But  the  Hindoo  writers  assert  that  during  the 
reign  of  king  Kansa  Yadus  the  High  Hiero- 
phant  alone  knew  how  to  perform  the  solemn 
operation  of  infusing  his  own  vital  and  astral 
soul  into  the  adept  chosen  by  him  for  his  suc- 
cessor, who  thus  became  endowed  with  a 
double  life. 

Mrs.  Britten,  in  her  "  Ghost  Land,"  gives  a 
strange  account  how  this  mystical  operation  of 
the  adept  to  transfer  his  spiritual  entity  after  the 
death  of  his  body  into  the  youth  he  loves  with 
all  the  ardent  love  of  a  spiritual  parent,  and 
how  he  used  the  organism  of  the  boy  in  sending 
his  astral  soul  to  different  places  and  to  do  cer- 
tain things;  all  of.  which  is  startling,  and  to  the 
uninitiated  it  sounds  like  the  wildest  romance, 
destitute  of  truth  and  in  violation  of  our  senses. 

"In  the  remotest  ages  there  has  existed  a 
mysterious,  awful  science,  under  the  name  of 
Theopcea.  This  science  taught  the  art  of  en- 
dowing the  various  symbols  of  the  gods  with 
temporary  life  and  intelligence.  Statues  and 
blocks  of  inert  matter  became  animated  un- 
der the  potential  will  of  the  hierophant.  The 
fire  stolen  by  Prometheus  had  fallen  down  in 
the  struggle  to  earth;  it  embraced  the  lower 
regions  of  the  sky,  and  settled  in  the  waves  of 
the  universal  ether,  as  the  potential  Akasa  of 
the  Hindoo  rites.  We  breathe  and  imbibe  it 
into   our   organic   system  at  every   inhalation. 


But  it  becomes  potential  only  under  the  influx 
of  will  and  spirit.  Left  to  itself  this  life-princi- 
ple will  blindly  follow  the  laws  of  nature,  and, 
according  to  conditions,  will  produce  health 
and  exuberance  of  life,  or  cause  death  and  dis- 
solution when  withdrawn;  but  guided  by  the 
will  of  the  adept,  it  becomes  obedient;  its  cur- 
rents restore  the  equilibrium  in  organic  bodies; 
they  fill  the  waste  and  produce  physical  and 
psychological  miracles  well  known  to  mesmer- 
izers.  Infused  into  inorganic  and  inert  matter, 
they  create  an  appearance  of  life,  hence  motion. 
If  to  the  life  an  individual  intelligence,  a  per- 
sonality, is  wanting,  then  the  operator  must 
either  send  his  scin-lecca,  his  own  astral  spirit, 
to  animate  it,  or  use  his  power  over  the  region 
of  native-spirits  to  force  one  of  them  to  infuse  his 
entity  into  the  marble,  wood  or  metal;  or  again 
be  helped  by  human  spirits. 

The  good  spirits  will  not  infuse  their  essence 
into  these  inanimate  objects.  They  leave  it  to 
the  lower  kinds  to  produce  the  similitude  of 
life,  animation  and  materialization.  They  send 
their  influence  through  the  intervening  spheres 
like  a  ray  of  divine  light,  when  the  so-called 
miracle  is  required  for  a  good  purpose.  The 
condition — and  this  is  a  law  of  spiritual  nature 
— is  purity  of  motive,  purity  of  the  surround- 
ing magnetic  atmosphere,  and  personal  purity 
of  the  operator.  Thus  it  is  that  a  pagan  mir- 
acle may  be  performad  by  a  fakir  of  South  In- 
dia. A  naked  beggar  crouched  on  the  floor, 
with  no  assistance  but  his  magic  power,  will  so 
command  these  hidden  forces  of  nature  as  to 
move  furniture  in  the  remotest  part  of  the  room, 
even  the  chair  or  sofa  you  may  be  sitting  on; 
the  doors  to  open  or  shut,  the  candle  to  go  out, 
birds,  flames,  the  forms  of  men,  women  and 
animals  to  flit  before  your  vision  in  broad  day- 
light, and  many  other  things  too  strange  and 
incredible  to  mention. 

The  power  to  move  statues  and  tables  is  not 
confined  to  the  ancients,  but  the  nineteenth 
century  is  full  of  such  incidents,  if  we  are  to 
believe  what  man  and  the  papers  say.  In  the 
summer  of  1876,  the  French  papers  gave  an  ac- 
count of  the  capers  performed  by  the  statue  of 
the  Madonna  of  Lourdes.  This  gracious  lady, 
says  the  sexton,  has  run  off  into  the  woods  several 
times,  and  he  was  forced  to  hunt  her  up  and 
bring  her  home.     After  this  began  a  series  of 


17 


miracles,  healing,  prophesying,  letters  dropping 
from  on  high,  and  many  other  strange  manifest- 
ations. These  miracles  are  implicitly  accepted 
by  millions  and  millions  of  Catholics,  many  of 
them  being  of  the  most  intelligent  and  educated 
classes.  Then  why  should  we  disbelieve  the 
statements  given  by  the  ancient  historians? 
Titus  and  Livy  say  that  when  the  statue  of  Juno 
was  asked  if  she  was  willing  "to  abandon  the 
walls  of  Veii  and  change  her  abode  to  that  of 
Rome,"  consented  by  nodding  her  head  and 
answering,  "  Yes,  I  will."  And,  says  the  his- 
torian, "Furthermore,  upon  carrying  off  the 
figure,  it  seemed  instantly  to  lose  its  immense 
weight"  and  he  adds,  "  the  statue  seemed  rather 
to  follow  than  otherwise."  (Tite-Livy,  v.  dec.  i,) 

Des  Mousseau,  a  devout  Catholic  writer, 
gives  many  instances  of  statues  of  saints  and 
madonnas  walking  and  moving  about.  He 
admits  that  magic  can  do  the  same,  but  that 
Christianity  can  beat  it;  that  one  is  the  work  of 
God,  while  the  other  is  the  doings  of  the  devil; 
and  says:  "The  Holy  Roman  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Church  declares  the  miracles  wrought 
by  the  faithful  sons  are  produced  by  the  will  of 
God,  and  all  others  the  work  of  the  spirits  of 
hell." 

The  ancients  animated  statues,  and  the  Her- 
mitists  called  into  being,  out  of  the  elements, 
the  shapes  of  salamanders,  gnomes,  undines 
and  sylphs,  which  they  did  not  pretend  to  cre- 
ate, but  simply  to  make  visible  by  holding  open 
the  door  of  nature,  so  that  under  favoring  con- 
ditions they  might  step  into  view.  And  if  the 
Bible  can  be  taken  as  authority,  "  Aaron  threw 
down  his  rod  and  it  became  a  serpent.  Then 
Pharaoh  also  called  his  wise  men  and  sorcerers; 
now  the  magicians  of  Egypt  they  did  also  in 
like  manner,  *  *  and  they  became  serpents, 
but  Aaron's  rod  swallowed  up  their  rods," 
Aaron  by  a  wave  of  his  rod  brought  forth  frogs, 
and  the  magicians  did  the  same;  so  that  the 
magicians  could  do  almost  all  things  that  Aaron 
did:  yet  Aaron  could  excel,  and  Pharaoh  con- 
cluded that  the  best  thing  he  could  do  was  to 
let  the  children  of  Israel  go. 

Now  these  manifestations  of  power  do  not 
exceed  what  the  magicians  and  fakirs  claim  to 
do  and  have  often  done  in  the  presence  of  the 
most  reliable  and  skillful  scientific  Europeans, 
and  they  have  been  unable  to  detect  any  fraud 


or  delusion;  so  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
if  the  ancient  magicians  of  Egypt  could  perform 
these  wonderful  feats,  they  could  be  done  now 
under  favorable  circumstances,  and  that  this 
secret  is  claimed  by  the  Hindoos  to  be  the  same 
art  that  has  been  known  in  India  for  thousands 
of  years. 

The  Hindoo  adepts  claim  to  possess  the  power 
of  controlling  the  akasa  (or  life-principle),  by 
means  of  which  they  are  able  to"  kill  a  person 
and  bring  him  to  life,  by  directing  a  current  of 
this  akasa  upon  the  wound  and  healing  it. 

The  performance  of  the  fakirs  are  wonderful 
and  defy  all  detection  of  trickery.  They  have 
been  known  to  be  buried  alive  and  grain  sown 
upon  the  grave,  and  in  thirty  days  were  dug  up 
alive.  They  will  inflict  mortal  wounds  and 
exhibit  their  bowels  to  persons  present,  and 
then  heal  the  wounds  immediately.  Some  of 
these  fakirs  exhibited  their  marvelous  power  to 
the  Prince  of  Wales  when  in  India.  One  of 
the  fakirs  gave  one  of  his  company  a  vessel  to 
hold;  it  soon  turned  to  a  cobra,  a  most  poisonous 
serpent,  and  it  was  examined  and  found  to  be 
alive  and  had  fangs.  If  it  had  bitten  any  one, 
it  would  have  been  instant  death.  They  gave 
some  mango  seed  to  the  prince  to  be  selected 
by  him.  It  was  then  placed  in  a  pot  of  earth; 
in  a  few  moments  it  came  up,  put  forth  leaves, 
buds  and  blossoms,  and  in  about  four  minutes 
matured  fruit  that  was  pronounced  by  all  pres- 
ent to  be  a  fresh  mango. 

The  same  thing  was  done  in  the  presence  ot 
Dr.  J.  M.  Peebles,  in  the  open  air;  of  which  he 
gives  an  account,  during  his  travels  in  India. 
Almost  any  traveler  in  that  country  will  cor- 
roborate this  statement. 


Wonder- Workers  of  India. 
Fakirs  can  be  buried  for  months,  as  has  been 
testified  by  English  officers — Lord  Napier, 
Captain  Osborne  and  Sir  Claude  Wade.  Cap- 
tain Osborne  says  he  "  saw  one  of  the  fakirs 
buried  for  six  weeks  beneath  my  floor,  and  to 
prevent  any  chance  of  deception  a  guard  of  four 
soldiers  was  detailed  to  watch  day  and  night  to 
see  there  was  no  deception."  "  On  openin-; 
it,"  says  Sir  Claude,  "  we  saw  a  figure  enclosed 
in  a  bag  of  white  linen  fastened  by  a  string  over 
the  head.  *  *  *  The  servant  then  began 
pouring  warm  water  over  the  figure.     *     * 


18 


The  legs  and  arms  of  the  body  were  shriveled 
and  stiff,  the  face  full,  the  head  resting  on  the 
shoulders  like  a  corpse.  I  then  called  the  med- 
ical man  who  was  attending  me  to  come  down 
and  inspect  the  body,  which  he  did  but  could 
discover  no  pulsation  in  the  heart,  the  temples 
or  the  arms.  There  was,  however,  a  heat  about 
the  region  of  the  brain,  but  no  other  part  of  the 
body  exhibited  any.  The  body  was  then  taken 
and  placed  in  a  warm  bath,  friction  was  applied, 
the  removal  of  wax  and  cotton  pledgets  fiom 
the  nostrils  and  ears,  the  rubbing  of  the  eyelids 
with  ghee  and  clarified  honey.  Then  they  ap- 
plied a  hot  cohesive  cake  of  bread  to  the  top 
of  his  head.  After  three  applications  of  the 
hot  cake  to  his  head,  the  body  was  convulsed, 
the  nostrils  inflated  and  respiration  begun,  the 
limbs  assumed  a  natural  fullness,  the  pulsation 
was  only  perceptible.  The  tongue  was  anointed 
with  ghee,  and  unrolled  where  the  end  had  been 
placed  in  the  gullet  to  prevent  any  air  entering 
the  stomach;  the  eyeballs  became  dilated  and 
recovered  their  natural  color,  and  the  fakir  rec- 
ognized those  present  and  spoke." 

This  plugging  up  process  was  done  to  keep 
the  air  from  entering  upon  the  organic  tissues 
of  the  body  and  prevented  decomposition,  so 
that  he  was  hermetically  sealed  up.  Now  if 
the  fakirs  can  suspend  life  in  this  way  and  then 
restore  animation,  why  should  not  we  give  cre- 
dence to  the  fact  as  stated  of  Jesus  Christ  res- 
urrecting Lazarus  ?  and  that  of  Appolonius  who 
restored  to  life  a  girl  ?  and  that  one  mentioned 
by  Diogenes  Laertius  restored  to  life  by  Em- 
pedocles  ?  Yet  these  were  pagans  and  are  dis- 
carded, while  that  of  Christ  is  alone  believed 
to  be  true.  The  prodigies  of  Jesus  and  Appo- 
lonius are  so  well  attested  that  they  appear  au- 
thentic. Whether  in  either  or  both  cases  life 
was  simply  suspended  or  not,  the  important 
fact  remains  that  by  some  power  peculiar  to 
themselves,  both  the  wonder-workers  recalled 
the  seemingly  dead  to  life  in  an  instant.  The 
books  are  full  of  instances  where  people  have 
been  buried  or  nearly  committed  to  the  tomb 
who  were  only  in  a  cataleptic  state. 

The  many  strange  stories  told  by  travelers  in 
the  East  would  fill  volumes.  One  given  to  a 
delegation  of  the  East  India  Company  is  thus 
related  :  "  A  lot  of  Englishmen  who  visited  the 
Indian  prince  Jehangire,  saw  two  tents  erected 


about  a  bow-shot  apart.  Then  the  fakir  asked 
the  guests  what  kind  of  animals  they  wished  to 
see  fight  ?  One  said,  •  Ostriches.'  At  a  signal 
given  out  stalked  a  couple  of  those  birds,  one 
from  each  tent  which  they  had  seen  erected 
with  nothing  in  them  ;  they  fought  some  time, 
the  blood  ran  down  their  necks  where  they  had 
bitten  each  other.  They  returned,  at  a  given 
word,  to  the  tents.  Then  another  of  the  com- 
pany called  for  a  lion  fight.  Out  of  each  tent 
walked  a  lion  ;  after  rolling  over  and  biting  one 
another,  roaring  and  tearing  up  the  ground, 
they  retired  at  a  given  word.  Then  out  came 
two  wild  buffaloes,  and  they  had  a  pitched  bat- 
tle. All  this  was  done  in  the  presence  of  the 
whole  court.  These  Bengalese  conjurers  and 
jugglers  then  took  ten  mulberry  seeds,  which 
they  planted  in  the  earth.  In  a  few  minutes 
they  produced  ten  trees.  The  ground  parted, 
the  sprouts  came  up,  pushing  out  leaves,  twigs 
and  branches,  spreading  wide  out  in  the  air, 
budding,  blossoming  and  yielding  fruit  which 
matured  on  the  spot,  which  they  tasted  and 
pronounced  good.  Figs,  almond,  mango  and 
walnut  were  planted  ;  they  likewise  grew  up 
rapidly  before  their  eyes.  The  branches  of 
these  trees  were  filled  with  birds  of  the  richest 
plumage,  flitting  among  the  leaves  and  singing 
sweet  notes.  The  leaves  then  turned  russet, 
fell  off,  branches  and  twigs  withered,  and  finally 
the  trunks  sank  back  into  the  earth.  It  all 
transpired  in  less  than  an  hour. 

"A  large  cauldron  was  then  produced,  and 
a  quantity  of  rice  was  thrown  into  it.  Without 
the  least  sign  of  fire  it  began  to  boil,  and  out  of 
this  cauldron  were  taken  hundreds  of  plates  of 
cooked  rice,  with  a  stewed  fowl  on  the  top  of 
each."  This  trick  is  performed  on  a  smaller 
scale  by  the  most  ordinary  fakirs  of  the  present 
day  in  India.  This  was  equal  to  that  of  Christ 
feeding  the  multitude  on  a  few  loaves  and  fishes. 

In  the  memoirs  of  the  emperor  Jehangire 
(page  99),  there  is  a  strange  account  given  by 
an  eye-witness:  "The  performance  of  the 
seven  jugglers  of  Bengal.  They  took  a  man 
and  chopped  each  limb  off  and  severed  his  head 
from  the  body.  They  scattered  the  mutilated 
members  around  on  the  ground  for  some  time; 
they  then  threw  a  sheet  over  them,  and  one  of 
the  jugglers  crept  under  it.  In  a  few  moments 
he   came    out,  followed   by  the  mutilated  man 


19 


that  a  few  moments  before  had  been  cut  all  to 
pieces.  They  then  took  a  chain,"  says  the 
writer,  "  some  fifty  cubits  long,  and  threw  one 
end  up  until  it  went  out  of  sight,  and  then  it 
remained  suspended  in  the  air.  A  dog  was 
then  produced,  placed  at  the  lower  end  of  the 
chain,  when  he  ran  up  it  out  of  sight.  Next 
was  a  hog,  a  lion  and  a  tiger,  all  did  the  same 
thing." 

Another  account  of  a  fakir,  given  in  the 
Franco-American,  is  ahead  of  this:  "  He  took 
a  peg  and  drove  into  the  ground,  threw  up  a 
ball  with  a  cord  attached,  which  went  out  of 
sight ;  he  then  sent  up  a  boy,  and  as  he  did  not 
return  he  said  he  would  go  after  him.  Soon 
down  came  a  hand  of  the  boy,  then  a  leg,  then 
the  body  all  bloody,  then  came  the  head;  pres- 
ently down  came  the  juggler  with  a  bloody  knife 
in  his  hand.  He  picked  up  the  different  parts 
of  the  boy  and  threw  them  into  a  basket,  when 
out  jumped  the  boy  and  ran  off." 

They  are  known  to  plant  the  hilts  of  their 
sharp  swords  in  the  ground,  then  lay  down  on 
the  points,  while  one  by  one  these  swords  were 
removed  until  he  lay  in  the  air  without  any  sup- 
port; and  an  Englishman  says  he  took  a  stick 
and  felt  under  the  body  and  could  find  no  sup- 
port. Says  Colonel  Yule:  "  They  will  stick  a 
live  pig  to  a  rock  so  it  can't  get  away,  restore 
the  dead  to  life,  catch  wild  beasts  with  their 
hands,  read  thoughts,  make  water  flow  back- 
ward, eat  tiles,  sit  in  the  midair,  etc."  An  old 
legend  ascribed  to  Simon  Magus  precisely  the 
same  power:  "  He  made  statues  to  walk,  leaped 
into  the  fire  without  being  burned,  flew  in  the 
air,  made  bread  of  stones,  changed  his  shape, 
assumed  two  faces  at  once,  converted  himself 
into  a  pillar,  caused  doors  to  open  at  will,"  etc. 

Origen  writes  that  the  Brahmans  always  were 
famous  for  their  wonderful  cures,  which  they 
performed  by  the  utterance  of  certain  words; 
and  the  present  travelers  in  India  say  it  is  still 
practiced,  and  that  upon  pronouncing  a  certain 
word  or  sentence  they  are  able  to  perform  won- 
derful tricks.  Some  will  walk  barefooted  on 
red,  burning  coals,  on  the  points  of  sharp  knives 
stuck  in  the  ground,  stand  posed  on  the  big  toe 
on  the  point  of  one  of  them,  and  lift  up  another 
man  from  off  the  ground.  I  have  seen  a  Jap- 
anese juggler  do  the  same,  ascend  a  ladder 
bare-footed  the  rounds  of  which  were  very  sharp 


swords.  I  have  also  seen  an  East  India  negro, 
called  the  "Fire  King,"  walk  on  hot  bars  of 
iron,  take  and  bend  them  under  his  foot  and 
up  around  his  leg;  the  outer  skin  would  smoke 
and  fry  a  little,  but  it  did  not  produce  appa- 
rently any  pain.  He  took  his  finger  and  stirred 
up  a  ladle  of  molten  lead,  then  took  a  table- 
spoonful  of  the  melted  lead  and  put  it  into  his 
mouth,  and  then  spat  it  out  on  the  floor,  which 
I  undertook  to  pick  up  but  got  my  fingers 
burned.  He  also  took  a  dish  of  alcohol,  put  a 
lot  of  tow  in  it,  stirred  it  up  and  set  it  on  fire, 
took  a  fork  and  began  to  eat  it,  the  blaze  rising 
up  over  his  head.  After  chewing  it  awhile,  the 
fire  blazing  out  whenever  he  opened  his  mouth, 
then  spitting  it  out  on  the  floor  it  burned  the 
wood.  He  blew  the  flames  out  of  his  mouth 
on  my  hand,  and  it  burned  it  and  singed  the 
hair.  All  of  this  was  done  in  broad  daylight, 
within  a  few  feet  of  myself  and  hundreds  of 
others.  He  would  stick  his  hands  into  the  fur- 
nace, take  up  a  coal  of  fire  and  light  his  pipe.  I 
examined  his  hands  and  feet;  there  appeared  to 
be  no  foreign  substance  on  them,  but  the  outer 
skin  appeared  a  little  parched  and  discolored. 
There  was  no  one  present  who  did  not  believe 
that  what  he  did  was  genuine,  as  several  like 
myself  got  their  fingers  burned  in  testing  it. 
He  said  that  he  would  not  mind  to  walk  into 
the  hottest  furnaces,  like  that  spoken  of  in  the 
Bible  where  the  Hebrew  children  walked 
through  the  fiery  furnace,  and  from  appearan- 
ces he  might  have  done  it. 

In  Siam,  Japan  and  Great  Tartary,  it  is  the 
custom  to  make  medallions,  statuets  and  idols 
out  of  the  ashes  of  cremated  persons.  They 
are  mixed  with  water  into  a  paste,  and  after 
being  molded  into  any  desired  shape,  are  baked 
and  then  gilded  and  kept  as  household  gods. 
The  cremation  is  done  to  facilitate  the  with- 
drawal of  the  astral  soul,  which  lingers  more  or 
less  until  the  bones  are  decomposed,  and  there- 
fore they  cremate  the  bodies  of  their  departed 
friends,  and  fearing  that  the  astral  soul  might 
remain  satisfied  for  an  indefinite  period  within 
the  ashes,  they  resort  to  the  following  process: 
"  The  sacred  dust  is  placed  in  a  heap  upon  a 
metallic  plate  strongly  magnetized,  of  the  size 
of  a  man's  body.  The  adept  then  slowly  and 
gently  fans  it  with  a  peculiar  fan,  and  at  the 
same  time  making  signs  and  muttering  a  form 


20 


of  invocation.  The  ashes  then  begin  to  move 
and  assume  the  outlines  of  the  body  before  cre- 
mation. Then  there  gradually  arises  a  sort  of 
whitish  vapor,  which  after  a  time  forms  into  an 
erect  column,  and  compacting  itself  is  finally 
transformed  into  the  '  double '  or  ethereal  astral 
counterpart  of  the  dead,  which  in  its  turn  dis- 
solves away  into  the  air  and  disappears  from 
mortal  sight."  This  accounts  for  the  Hindoos 
preferring  cremation,  as  it  sets  the  astral  body 
free  from  the  earthly  remains,  around  which  it 
lingers  until  it  dissolves  back  into  its  original 
elements. 

This  wonderful  power  has  existed  in  all  ages 
of  the  world  in  some  phase  or  other,  to  illumin- 
ate dark  and  benighted  man,  to  elevate  him 
and  cause  him  to  look  up  to  a  higher  and  bet- 
ter life  to  come.  History,  sacred  and  profane, 
is  full  of  it.  Whether  it  came  from  natural- 
born  mediums,  or  learned  by  association  with 
those  versed  in  the  occult  sciences  of  the  Ori- 
ental world,  where  it  has  been  known  from  time 
immemorial  and  sacredly  guarded  by  the  Brah- 
mans,  Buddhists,  fakirs,  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians, heliophants,  with  whom  Moses  learned 
the  art  and  introduced  it  among  the  Jews  under 
the  Order  of  the  Kabalist,  and  out  of  which 
Freemasonry  has  sprung,  as  Solomon  sent  his 
ships  to  Ophir  for  gold  and  frankincense,  myrrh 
and  pea-feathers,  which  land  was  no  doubt 
India. 

In  India,  Malabar,  and  some  places  in  Cen- 
tral Africa,  the  conjurers  will  let  a  person  fire 
his  own  musket  or  revolver  at  them  without 
ever  touching  or  interfering  in  loading  it. 
Laing,  in  his  travels,  gives  an  instance  of  it. 
Salvert  gives  a  similar  instance  in  his  Philoso- 
phy of  Occult  Sciences.  In  1568  the  Prince  of 
Orange  condemned  a  Spanish  prisoner  to  be 
shot  at  Juliers.  The  soldier  was  tied  to  a  tree 
and  shot  at  by  a  file  of  soldiers,  but  the  balls 
took  no  effect.  It  was  supposed  that  he  had  a 
coat  of  armor  on;  he  was  stripped;  they  found 
he  only  had  an  amulet  on,  which  was  taken  off. 
Then  he  was  fired  at  and  fell  dead.  Not  many 
years  ago  there  lived  in  Abyssinia  a  sorcerer 
who  would  let  the  European  travelers  fire  at 
him  with  their  own  guns  loaded  by  them  with 
their  own  balls,  for  a  trifle.  At  last  they  offered 
him  five  francs  to  let  them  place  the  muzzle  of 
the  gun  next  to  the  body.     After  consulting  the 


spirits  by  placing  his  ear  to  the  ground,  he  con- 
sented. The  gun  bursted  and  the  conjurer  was 
unhurt.  An  Indian  said  that  Washington  was 
not  to  be  killed  by  a  bullet,  as  he  had  fired  at 
him  seventeen  times  within  short  range  without 
ever  touching  him  at  Braddock's  defeat;  and  it 
is  remarkable  that  he  never  was  wounded  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  his  life,  yet  he  was  often  in 
the  thickest  of  the  fight.  In  fact  many  great 
generals  have  been  believed  by  their  soldiers  to 
have  a  "charmed  life."  Prince  Emile  von 
Sayne-Wittgenstein,  of  the  Russian  army,  is 
said  to  be  one  possessed  of  a  charmed  life. 

There  are  persons  who  have  the  power  to 
psychologize  birds  and  kill  them  by  will  power. 
Jacques  Pelessier,  in  the  province  of  Le  Var, 
France,  in  1864,  made  his  living  by  catching 
and  killing  birds  by  his  will  power,  which  was 
thoroughly  tested  by  men  of  science.  Fourteen 
birds  Avere  taken  in  this  way  in  one  hour;  none 
could  resist  his  power.  By  stretching  out  his 
hand  towards  them  they  became  powerless.  It 
at  once  put  them  into  a  cataleptic  sleep,  and 
the  phenomena  proved  to  be  a  magnetic  action. 
But  his  power  was  confined  to  sparrows,  robins, 
goldfinches  and  meadow  larks,  and  he  could 
not  charm  other  birds. 

There  are  persons  in  Irdia  and  Africa  that 
can  charm  snakes,  crocodiles,  and  wild  animals 
like  the  tiger,  which  have  been  known  to  go  up 
and  lick  the  hands  of  a  fakir  when  asleep  in  the 
jungles,  and  not  injure  him. 

The  Buddhists  claim  that  the  spirit  of  Buddha 
becomes  reincarnated  in  the  flesh  after  death, 
so  that  he  ever  lives,  passing  from  out  the  old 
body  at  death  and  entering  into  that  of  a  young 
child.  The  scene  of  the  reincarnation  is  given 
by  a  Florentine  scientist,  who  visited  Thibet  in 
the  early  part  of  this  century,  having  been  per- 
mitted to  penetrate  in  disguise  to  the  hallowed 
precincts  of  a  Buddhist  temple,  where  the  most 
solemn  of  all  ceremonies  takes  place,  which  are 
shut  out  from  the  gaze  of  the  uninitiated. 
"  An  altar  is  ready  in  the  temple  to  receive  the 
resuscitated  Buddha  found  by  the  initiated 
priesthood,  and  recognized  by  certain  secret 
signs  to  have  reincarnated  himself  in  a  new- 
born infant.  The  baby,  but  a  few  days  old, 
is  brought  into  the  presence  of  the  people  and 
reverentially  placed  upon  the  altar.  Suddenly 
rising  into  a  sitting  posture,  the  child  begins  to 


21 


utter,  in  a  loud,  manly  voice,  the  following 
sentences:  '  I  am  Buddha;  I  am  his  spirit,  and 
I,  Buddha,  your  Dolai  Lama,  have  left  my  old 
decrepid  body,  at  the  temple  of  *  *  *  and 
selected  the  body  of  this  young  babe  as  my  next 
earthly  dwelling."  He  says  he  was  permitted 
by  the  priests  to  take  the  baby  in  his  arms  and 
carry  it  off  some  distance,  so  as  to  satisfy  him- 
self that  it  was  no  trick  of  the  ventriloquist. 
The  infant  opened  his  eyes  and  gave  him  such 
a  look  that  it  made  his  flesh  creep,  and  repeated 
the  same  words,  so  there  could  be  no  mistake 
about  it. 

This  account  is  confirmed  by  Abbe  Hue,  a 
celebrated  Catholic  priest  who  traveled  through 
this  country,  and  he  further  states  that  the  child 
answers  questions  and  tells  those  who  knew  him 
in  "  his  past  life  the  most  exact  details  of  his 
anterior  earthly  existence."  But  he  was  un- 
frocked by  the  church  because  he  was  sincere 
and  stuck  to  the  truth  of  the  assertion. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  instance  of  babies 
speaking.  Jacques  Dubois  gives  an  account  of 
the  Camissard  prophets  in  1707,  among  whom 
was  a  boy  fifteen  months  old,  who  spoke  in  good 
French  "as though  God  were  speaking  through 
his  mouth;"  and  there  are  the  Cevennes  babies 
whose  speaking  and  prophesying  were  witnessed 
by  the  first  savans  of  France,  which  has  passed 
into  history  uncontradicted.  Lloyd's  Weekly 
Neivspapbr  for  March,  1875,  contains  an  ac- 
count of  the  following  phenomena:  "  At  Saar- 
Louis,  France,  a  child  was  born;  the  mother 
had  just  been  delivered,  and  the  midwife  was 
holding  the  child  in  her  hands,  when  some  one 
asked  what  was  the  hour.  To  the  astonishment 
of  all  present  the  new-born  babe  replied  dis- 
tinctly, 'Two  o'clock.'  While  they  all  were 
looking  at  the  infant  in  speechless  wonder  and 
dismay,  it  opened  its  eyes  and  said:  'I  have 
been  sent  into  the  world  to  tell  you  that  1875 
will  be  a  good  year,  but  that  1876  will  be  a  year 
of  blood.'  Having  uttered  this  prophecy  it 
turned  on  its  side  and  expired,  aged  half  an 
hour."  The  truth  of  this  prophecy  is  too  late  to 
admit  of  a  comment,  as  1875  was  a  year  of  great 
plenty,  and  1876  one  of  bloody  scenes  on  the 
Danube,  between  the  Turks  and  Russians,  un- 
paralleled except  in  the  butchery  of  the  Indians 
in  Nortn  and  South  America,  and  the  wading 
in  blood  of  the  English  to  the  throne  of  Delhi. 


There  are  many  instances  of  the  precocity  of 
children,  but  I  will  only  relate  one  more,  that 
of  a  child  of  H.  D.  Jencken,  M.  R.  L,  barris- 
ter at  law,  London,  whose  mother  was  the  fa- 
mous Kate  Fox,  of  Rochester  rapping  notoriety. 
When  the  child  was  only  three  months  old,  it 
showed  evidence  of  mediumship  by  raps  on  the 
pillow  and  cradle,  and  when  five  months  old 
wrote  a  communication  of  twenty  words. 

Prophecy  can  only  be  explained  by  spirits 
impressing  the  person,  as  spirits  of  higher  intel- 
ligence are  able  to  combine  causes  and  effects 
and  can  tell  more  readily  what  the  result  will 
be  than  a  man;  so  can  a  man  foretell  events 
better  than  a  child;  and  in  this  obscure  way 
certain  persons  in  a  peculiar  state  may  have 
visions  and  get  a  glimpse  into  the  future.  But 
spirits,  like  men,  are  limited  in  their  knowledge, 
and  some  know  more  than  others;  so  it  depends 
on  the  source  and  the  knowledge  of  the  spirit. 
The  Bible  and  history  are  full  of  prophecy. 
Much  of  it  has  been  fulfilled,  and  much  of  it 
has  not.  Governor  Talmadge  gives  an  account 
of  how  a  distinguished  citizen's  life  was  saved 
on  board  of  the  United  States  war  ship  Prince- 
ton, by  a  premonition.  Rev.  Dr.  Wilson,  of 
Allegheny  City,  prophecied  the  great  fire  of 
1845  in  Pittsburg,  the  Mexican  war  and  its 
results,  tke  war  between  Russia  and  the  West- 
ern powers,  and  the  speedy  limitation  of  the 
temporal  power  of  the  Pope. 

Napoleon,  while  an  exile  on  the  island  of  St. 
Helena,  made  the  following  prediction  about 
the  United  States:  "  Ere  the  close  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  America  will  be  convulsed  with 
one  of  the  greatest  revolutions  the  world  has 
ever  witnessed.  Should  it  succeed,  her  power 
and  prestige  are  lost;  but  should  the  Govern- 
ment maintain  her  supremacy,  she  will  be  on  a 
firmer  basis  than  ever.  The  theory  of  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government  will  be  established, 
and  she  will  defy  the  world."  History  gives 
us  prophecies  of  Hannibal  and  Napoleon, 
which  were  fulfilled.  Whether  old  Mother 
Shipley's  prophecy  will  come  true  remains  to  be 
seen;  yet  much  of  it  has  come  to  pass,  but  the 
world  did  not  end  in  1882. 

How  the  spirits  arrive  at  these  facts  is  un- 
known; yet  they  may,  like  the  astronomer  who 
by  calculation  is  able  to  tell  when  an  eclipse  of 
the  sun  or  moon   will  take   place  for  hundreds 


22 


of  years  to  come.  To  the  ignorant  this  appears 
to  be  impossible.  The  truth  of  science,  of 
all  knowledge,  is  to  afford  facilities  to  predict 
the  unknown,  and  judge  the  future  by  the  past 
— the  cause  and  effect — will  produce  certain  re- 
sults if  their  relation  is  properly  understood. 
But  there  is  much  depending  on  the  environ- 
ments, and  these  are  forever  changing,  so  that 
it  is  impossible  for  even  the  most  advanced 
minds  to  see  all  that  may  happen  or  change  the 
course  of  things  and  events.  So  long  as  knowl- 
edge is  limited,  so  long  will  prophecies  prove 
failures. 


Destiny. 
"  Man,  therefore,  to  a  certain  extent,  is  a  be- 
ing of  destiny,  which  is  ever  weaving  thread  by 
thread  around  himself,  as  a  spider  does  his  cob- 
web; and  this  destiny  is  guided  either  by  that 
presence  termed  by  some  the  guardian  angel, 
or  more  intimate  astral  inner  man,  who  is  too 
often  the  evil  genius  of  the  man  of  flesh.  But 
these  lead  on  the  outward  man,  but  one  of  them 
must  prevail,  and  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  invisible  affray  the  stern  implacable  law  of 
compensation  steps  in  and  takes  its  course,  fol- 
lowing faithfully  the  fluctuations.  When  the  last 
strand  is  woven,  and  man  is  seemingly  enwrap- 
ped in  the  network  of  his  own  doing,'  then  he 
finds  himself  completely  under  the  empire  of 
his  self-made  destiny.  It  then  either  fixes  him 
like  the  inert  shell  of  an  oyster  against  the  im- 
movable rock,  or  like  a  feather  carries  him 
away  in  a  whirlwind  raised  by  his  own  actions." 


An  Occult  Fraternity. 
"There  is  an  occult  fraternity  which  has  ex- 
isted from  very  ancient  times,  having  a  hierarchy 
of  officers,  secret  signs  and  passwords,  and  a 
peculiar  method  of  instruction  in  science,  reli- 
gion and  philosophy.  If  we  may  believe  those 
who  at  present  profess  to  belong  to  it,  the  phi- 
losopher's stone,  the  elixir  ot  life,  the  art  of 
invisibility,  and  the  power  of  communicating 
directly  with  the  ultra-mundane  life,  are  a  part 
of  the  inheritance  they  possess."  These  adepts 
are  of  a  limited  number,  seldom  remain  long  in 
any  place,  but  leave  without  creating  notice. 
They  all  appear  to  be  men  from  forty  to  fifty 
years  old,  possessed  of  vast  erudition,  and  can 
speak  in  many  tongues.     They  are  men  of  mod- 


erate means,  caring  little  for  wealth,  yet  always 
have  enough  to  supply  their  wants.  They  live 
pure  and  blameless  lives,  are  austere  in  manners 
and  almost  ascetic  in  their  habits. 

There  is  a  mystical  fraternity  now  established 
in  the  United  States,  which  claims  an  intimate 
relationship  with  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
powerful  of  Eastern  Brotherhoods.  It  is  known 
as  the  Brotherhood  of  Luxor.  It  has  many 
faithful  members  widely  scattered  throughout 
the  West.  They  have  many  important  secrets 
of  science  which  they  guard  with  great  jealousy, 
but  which  they  are  willing  to  impart  to  man 
when  he  has  advanced  enough  to  receive  them. 
No  one  can  become  a  member  unless  he  be  a 
person  endowed  with  certain  intellectual  gifts 
by  birth.  No  position,  rank  or  money  can  pro- 
cure a  membership.  Nature  places  the  stamp 
by  which  they  are  recognized.  Its  officers  and 
records  are  kept  in  the  spirit  world,  who  impart 
to  the  initiate  whatever  knowledge  they  see 
proper  to  confer.  They  never  mistake  a  person 
nor  his  fidelity  to  keep  a  secret. 

We  have  a  very  interesting  account  of  one  of 
these  adepts  in  the  strange  and  interesting  work 
of  Emma  Harding  Britten,  "  The  Ghost  Land 
or  Occultism,"  who,  she  says,  wrote  the  "  Art 
Magi,"  which  she  had  published;  and  if  the 
statement  therein  made  be  true,  it  is  stranger 
than  fiction,  and  well  may  one  exclaim  in  the 
language  of  Hamlet:  "There  are  more  things 
in  heaven  and  earth,  Horatio,  than  are  dreamed 
of  in  your  philosophy." 

These  adepts  hold  their  conclaves  in  an  en- 
chanted cave  in  India,  where  invisible  spirits 
reveal  themselves  to  the  adept  and  mingle  to- 
gether in  the  human  form.  They  perform  won- 
ders that  no  mortal  can  understand.  They 
introduce  the  adept  by  passing  through  under- 
ground passages,  where  rocks  part  to  admit  their 
ingress  and  egress.  The  cavern  is  lit  up  by  a 
luminous  light  that  radiates  from  their  heads; 
the  walls  reflect  this  light  like  thousands  of  dia- 
monds and  crystals.  The  spirits  flit  hither  and 
thither.  The  brain  of  the  adept  becomes  be- 
wildered, and  in  a  semi-conscious  state  he  is  led 
forth  to  the  light  of  day,  not  knowing  whence 
he  came. 

Madame  Blavatsky,  Secretary  of  the  Theo- 
sophical  Society  and  author  of  "  Isis  Unvailed," 
has  made  wonderful  progress  in  the  occult  sci- 


23 


ences,  so  that  she  has  been  able  to  send  mes- 
sages to  the  adepts  of  Kashmir  valley,  hundreds 
of  miles  off,  and  receive  answers  without  any 
visible  means.  The  messages  come,  and  are 
placed  wherever  she  requests.  At  her  com- 
mand the  invisible  power  takes  it  and  soon  re- 
turns with  the  answer  from  some  of  the  Yhebian 
brothers.  Wherever  she  goes  there  are  persons 
impressed  to  meet  her  with  conveyance  or  mon- 
ey. She  has  traveled  over  India  in  company 
with  Alcott,  another  adept. 

**  The  keys  to  the  biblical  miracles  of  old, 
and  to  the  phenomena  of  modern  days;  the 
problems  of  psychology,  physiology,  and  the 
many  ■  missing  links '  which  have  so  perplexed 
scientists  of  late,  are  all  in  the  hands  of  secret 
fraternities.  This  mystery  must  be  unvailed 
some  day.  But  till  then  dark  skepticism  will 
constantly  interpose  its  threatening,  ugly  shad- 
ow between  God's  truths  and  the  spiritual  vision 
of  mankind;  and  many  are  those  who,  infected 
by  the  moral  epidemic  of  our  century — hope- 
less materialism — will  remain  in  doubt  and  mor- 
tal agony  as  to  whether  when  man  dies  he  will 
live  again,  although  the  question  has  been  solved 
by  long  bygone  generations  of  sages.  The  an- 
swers are  there.  They  may  be  found  in  the 
time-worn  granite  pages  of  caves,  temples,  on 


sphinxes,  propylons  and  obelisks.  They  have 
stood  there  for  untold  ages,  and  neither  the 
rude  assault  of  time,  nor  the  still  ruder  assault 
of  the  hands  of  the  religious  fanatic,  have  suc- 
ceeded in  obliterating  the  records — all  covered 
with  the  problems  which  were  solved — who  can 
tell  ?  perhaps  by  the  archaic  forefathers  of  their 
builders.  The  solution  follows  each  question, 
and  this  the  Christian  could  not  appropriate, 
for  except  the  initiates  no  one  has  understood 
the  mystic  writings.  The  key  was  in  the  keep- 
ing of  those  who  knew  how  to  commune  with 
the  invisible  Presence,  and  who  had  received, 
from  the  lips  of  Mother  Nature  herself,  her 
grand  truths.  And  so  stands  these  monuments, 
like  mute  forgotten  sentinels  on  the  threshold 
of  that  unseen  world,  whose  gates  are  thrown 
open  but  to  a  few  elect.  Defying  the  hand  of 
time,  the  vain  inquiry  of  profane  science,  the 
insults  of  rwealcd  religion,  they  will  disclose 
their  riddles  to  none  but  the  legatees  of  those 
by  whom  they  were  intrusted  with  the  mystery. 
The  cold  stony  lips  of  the  once  vocal  Memnon, 
and  these  hardy  sphinxes,  keep  their  secrets 
well.  Who  will  unseal  them  ?  Who  of  you 
modern  materialistic  dwarfs  and  unbelieving 
sadducees  will  dare  to  lift  the  Vail  of 
Isis?" 


CHAPTER   III. 


SOUL  OF  THE   UNIVERSE. 

(ANIMA  mundi.) 


Ether— Psychomacy— Plato   and   St.    Paul  on    the  Triune,  Body,  Spirit   and    Soul—  Transmigration- 
Hindoo  Idea  of  a   Soul,  its  Origin  and   Destiny. 


The  soul  of  the  universe,  the  great  magnetic 
agent  which  gives  life  to  all  things,  is  what  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  calls  the  Divine  Sensorum.  It  is, 
he  says,  "a  very  subtle  spirit  which  penetrates 
through  all  things,  even  the  hardest  bodies,  and 
is  concealed  in  their  substance.  Through  the 
strength  and  activity  of  this  spirit  bodies  attract 
each  other  and  adhere  together  when  brought 
into  contact.  Through  it  electrical  bodies  op- 
erate at  the  remotest  distance  as  well  as  near  at 
hand,  attracting  and  repelling.  Through  this 
spirit  the  light  also  flows,  and  is  refracted  and 
reflected  and  warms  bodies.  All  senses  are 
excited  by  this  spirit,  and  through  it  the  ani- 
mals move  their  limbs.  But  these  things  can- 
not be  explained  in  a  few  words,  and  we  have 
not  yet  sufficient  experience  to  determine  fully 
the  laws  by  which  this  universal  spirit  operates." 

It  is  an  independent  life-force  that  actuates 
and  moves  all  things.  The  ancient  oracles  as- 
serted that  it  was  "ether  that  gave  impressions 
of  thoughts,  characters  and  divine  visions  to 
men,  by  which  they  were  able  to  read  the  past 
and  the  future;  that  this  ether  abounded  through- 
out space  in  which  all  intelligence  was  regis- 
tered, and  that  the  future  existed  in  this  astral 
light  in  embryo,  as  the  present  existed  in  em- 
bryo in  the  past.  While  man  is  free  to  act  as 
he  pleases,  the  manner  in  which  he  will  act 
was  foreknown  from  all  time;  not  on  the  ground 
of  fatalism  or  destiny,  but  simply  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  universal,  unchangeable  harmony,  and 
as  it  may  be  foreknown  that,  when  a  musical 
note  is  struck,  its  vibration  will  not  and  cannot 
change  into  those  of  another  note.  Besides 
that,  eternity  can  have  neither  past  nor  future, 
but  only  the  present,  as  boundless  space,  in  its 


strictly  literal  sense,  can  have  neither  distant 
nor  proximate  places,  as  there  is  no  beginning 
and  no  end,  so  that  we  only  catch  the  reflection 
of  the  past  and  a  glimpse  of  the  future.  Pro- 
fessor Hitchcock  says:  "The  human  spirit, 
being  of  the  Divine  immortal  spirit,  appreciates 
neither  past  nor  future,  but  sees  all  things  as  in 
the  present." 

Professor  J.  W.  Draper  says:  "A  shadow 
never  falls  upon  a  wall  without  leaving  thereupon 
a  permanent  trace,  a  trace  which  might  be  made 
visible  by  applying  the  proper  process.  *  *  * 
The  portraits  of  our  friends,  or  landscape  views, 
may  be  hidden  upon  the  sensitive  surface  from 
the  eye,  but  they  are  ready  to  make  their  ap- 
pearance as  soon  as  a  proper  developer  is  resort- 
ed to.  A  specter  is  concealed  on  a  silver  or 
glassy  surface,  until  by  our  necromancy  we  make 
it  come  forth  into  the  visible  world.  Upon  the 
walls  of  our  most  private  apartments,  where  we 
think  the  eye  of  intrusion  is  altogether  shut  out, 
and  our  retirement  can  never  be  profaned, 
there  exist  the  vestiges  of  all  our  acts,  silhou- 
ettes of  what  we  have  done,"  so  that  every 
thought,  act  and  deed  is  registered  to  condemn 
or  justify  us  when  the  mind  is  quickened  in 
death,  as  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  a  drowning 
man,  when  all  the  long-forgotten  scenes  of  his 
moral  life  flash  across  his  memory. 

And  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  we  often  re- 
cognize familiar  places,  landscapes  and  faces 
that  we  have  no  recollection  of  ever  having  seen 
before.  This  is  accounted  for  on  the  theory  that 
the  spirit  has,  in  its  wanderings  while  the  body 
was  wrapped  in  slumber,  seen  these  faces  and 
places.  This  gave  rise  to  the  idea  of  transmi- 
gration, that  the  soul  had  previously  been  in  the 


25 


or  TBI 

XTNIVERSITY 


" 

spiritual  body,  zm3~irhrite  "the  mere  animal  por- 
tions of  him  rest,  the  more  spiritual  ones  know 
neither  limits  nor  obstacles.  *  *  *  Some 
might  object  on  the  ground  taken  by  theology, 
that  dumb  brutes  have  no  immortal  souls,  and 
hence  can  have  no  spirits.  Theologians,  as 
laymen,  labor  under  the  erroneous  impression 
that  the  soul  and  spirit  are  one  and  the  same 
thing.  But  if  we  study  Plato  and  other  philos- 
ophers of  old,  we  may  readily .  perceive  that 
while  the  irrational  soul — by  which  Plato  meant 
our  spiritual  body  or  more  ethereal  representa- 
tive of  ourselves — can  have  at  best  only  a  pro- 
longed continuity  of  existence  beyond  the  grave, 
(which  is  only  the  body  of  the  spirit.) 

The  deeper  the  trance,  the  less  signs  of  life 
the  body  shows,  the  clearer  become  the  spirit- 
ual perceptions  and  more  powerful  is  the  soul's 
vision.  The  soul,  disburdened  of  bodily  senses, 
shows  activity  of  power  in  a  far  greater  degree 
of  intensity  than  it  can  in  a  strong,  healthy  body. 
Brirre  de  Boismont  gives  repeated  instances  of 
this  fact.  'The  organs  of  sight,  smell,  taste, 
touch  and  hearing,  are  proved  to  become  far 
acuter  in  a  mesmerized  subject  deprived  of  the 
possibility  of  exercising  them  bodily,  than  while 
he  uses  them  in  his  normal  state."  Such  facts 
alone  proved,  ought  to  stand  as  invincible  dem- 
onstrations of  the  continuity  of  individual  life, 
at  least  for  a  certain  period  after  the  body  has 
been  left  by  us,  either .  by  reason  of  its  being 
worn  out  or  by  accident.  But  during  its  brief 
sojourn  on  earth,  our  soul  may  be  assimulated 
to  a  light  hidden  under  a  bushel;  it  still  shines 
more  or  less  bright,  and  attracts  to  itself  the 
influences  of  kindred  spirits,  and  when  a  thought 
of  good  or  evil  import  is  begotten  in  our  brain, 
it  draws  to  it  impulses  of  like  nature  as  irresist- 
ibly as  a  magnet  attracts  iron  filings.  This  at- 
traction is  also  proportionate  to  the  intensity 
with  which  the  thought-impulse  makes  itself  felt 
in  the  ether;  and  so  it  will  be  understood  how 
one  man  may  impress  himself  upon  his  own 
epoch  so  forcibly  that  the  influence  may  be 
carried — through  the  ever-interchanging  cur- 
rents of  the  two  worlds,  the  visible  and  invis- 
ible—  from  one  succeeding  age  to  another, 
until  it  affects  a  large  portion  of  mankind. 

Regard  it  as  you  please,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  properties  of  the  ether  are  of  a 
much  higher  order  in  the  arena  of  nature  than 


body  of  some  one  else;  and  this  psychological 
phenomena  is  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  in 
favor  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  As  Eli- 
phas  Levi  beautifully  expresses  it,  "Nature 
shuts  the  door  after  everything  that  passes,  and 
pushes  life  onward  in  more  perfected  forms." 
The  chrysalis  becomes  a  butterfly;  but  the  latter 
never  becomes  a  grub  again. 

In  the  stillness  of  the  night  hours,  when  our 
bodily  senses  are  fast  locked  in  the  fetters  of 
sleep,  and  our  physical  body  rests,  the  astral 
form  becomes  free.  It  then  oozes  out  of  its 
earthly  prison,  and,  as  Paracelsus  has  it,  "  con- 
fabulates with  the  outward  world,"  and  M  travels 
round  the  visible  as  well  as  the  invisible  worlds." 

In  sleep,  he  says,  "  the  astral  body  (soul)  is 
in  freer  motion;  then  it  roams  to  its  parents  and 
holds  converge  with  the  stars.  *  *  *  The 
more  the  body  is  exhausted  the  freer  is  the  spir- 
itual man,  and  the  more  vivid  the  impressions 
of  our  soul's  memory."  Dreams,  forebodings, 
prognostications  and  presentiments  are  impres- 
sions left  by  our  astral  spirit  on  our  brain,  which 
receives  them  more  or  less  distinctly  according 
to  the  proportion  of  blood  with  which  it  is  sup- 
plied during  the  hours  of  sleep. 

Heavy  and  robust  persons,  whose  sleep  is 
dreamless  and  uninterrupted,  upon  awaking  to- 
ward consciousness,  may'  sometimes  remember 
nothing;  but  impressions  of  scenes  and  land- 
scapes which  the  astral  body  saw  in  its  pere- 
grinations are  still  there,  though  lying  latent 
under  the  pressure  of  matter.  They  may  be 
awakened  at  any  moment,  and  then,  during 
such  flashes  of  man's  inner  memory,  there  is  an 
instantaneous  interchange  of  energies  between 
the  visible  and  the  invisible  universes.  Between 
the  "micrographs"  of  the  cerebral  ganglion 
and  the  photo-scenographic  galleries  of  the 
spirit  a  current  is  established.  Like  the  audo- 
phone  of  Edison,  it  only  needs  the  current  es- 
tablished, and  the  words  come  forth  through  it. 
They  may  have  been  spoken  years  before  and 
stored  up. 

Blumenbach  assures  us  that  "  in  the  state  of 
sleep  all  intercourse  between  mind  and  body  is 
suspended."  "  No  man,  however  gross  and 
material  he  may  be,  can  avoid  leading  a  double 
existence — one  in  the  visible  universe  and  the 
other  in  the  invisible.  The  life-principle  which 
animates  his   physical  frame  is  chiefly  in  the 


26 


those  of  tangible  matter,  and  as  even  the  highest 
priests  of  science  still  find  the  latter  far  beyond 
their  comprehension,  except  in  numerous  but 
minute  and  often  isolated  particles,  it  would  not 
become  us  to  speculate  further.  It  is  sufficient 
for  our  purpose  to  know,  from  what  the  ether 
certainly  does,  that  it  is  capable  of  doing  vastly 
more  than  any  has  yet  ventured  to  say." 

It  may  be  what  the  Chaldean  oracles  call 
ether,  for  it  states  that  from  ether  have  come 
all  things,  and  to  it  all  will  return;  that  the  im- 
ages of  all  things  are  indelibly  impressed  upon 
it,  and  that  it  is  the  storehouse  of  the  germs  or 
of  the  remains  of  all  visible  forms  and  even 
ideas. 

Psychomancy. 

It  may  be  to  this  subtile  force  that  certain 
persons,  by  their  sensitive  touch  against  the 
forehead,  are  enabled  to  read  names  in  a  folded 
ballot,  or  the  fragment  of  an  ancient  building 
recall  its  history  and  even  the  scenes  which 
transpired  in  and  about  it.  A  bit  of  ore  will 
carry  the  soul's  vision  back  to  the  time  when  it 
was  in  process  of  formation.  This  faculty  is 
called  by  its  discoverer,  Professor  J.  R.  Bu- 
chanan, of  "Louisville,  Kentucky,  Psychomancy. 
He  says,  "The  mental  and  physiological  influ- 
ence imparted  to  writing  appears  to  be  imper- 
ishable. The  specimens  I  have  investigated 
give  their  impressions  with  a  distinctness  and 
force  little  impaired  by  time.  Old  manuscripts 
requiring  an  antiquary  to  decipher  their  strange 
old  penmanship,  were  easily  interpreted  by  the 
psychometric  power.  *  *  *  The  property 
of  retaining  the  impress  of  mind  is  not  limited 
to  writing,  drawing,  painting.  Everything  upon 
which  human  contact,  thought  and  volition 
have  been  expended,  may  become  linked  with 
that  thought  and  life  so  as  to  recall  them  to  the 
mind  of  another  when  in  contact." 

Many  tests  have  been  made.  A  fragment  of 
Cicero's  house  at  Tusculum  was  given  to  the 
psychometer,  who  placed  it  to  his  forehead;  he 
at  once  described,  without  the  slightest  knowl- 
edge where  the  fragment  came  from,  the  place 
and  the  surrounding  of  the  great  orator's  home; 
also,  the  previous  owner  of  the  building,  Cor- 
nelius Sulla  Felix,  the  dictator,  was  described. 
M  A  fragment  of  marble  from  the  ancient  Chris- 
tian church  of  Smyrna  brought  before  the  psy- 


chometer its  congregation  and  its  officiating 
priests.  Specimens  from  Nineveh,  China,  Je- 
rusalem, Greece,  Ararat,  and  other  places  all 
over  the  world,  brought  up  scenes  in  life  of  va- 
rious personages  whose  ashes  had  been  scattered 
thousands  of  years  ago.  In  many  cases  Profes- 
sor Denton  verified  the  statements  by  reference 
to  historical  records.  A  bit  of  the  skeleton  or 
a  fragment  of  the  tooth  of  some  ante-diluvian 
animal  caused  the  seeress  (who  was  blindfolded) 
to  perceive  the  creature  as  it  was  when  alive, 
and  even  gave  a  brief  mention  of  its  life  and 
sensations.  The  psychometer,  by  applying  the 
fragment  of  a  substance  to  his  forehead,  brings 
his  inner  life  into  relations  with  the  inner  soul 
of  the  object  he  handles." 

Professor  Denton  says:  "  Not  a  leaf  waves, 
not  an  insect  crawls,  not  a  ripple  moves,  but 
each  motion  is  recorded  by  a  thousand  faithful 
scribes  in  infallible  and  indelible  scripture. 
From  the  dawn  of  light  upon  this  infant  globe, 
when  round  its  cradle  the  starry  curtains  hung, 
to  this  moment,  nature  has  been  busy  photo- 
graphing everything;"  so  when  the  psychometer 
examines  his  specimen  he  is  brought  into  con- 
tact with  the  current  of  astral  light  connected 
with  that  specimen,  and  which  retains  pictures 
of  the  event  associated  with  with  its  history. 
These,  according  to  Pr&fessor  Denton,  pass  be- 
fore his  vision  with  the  swiftness  of  light,  scene 
aftei  scene  crowding  upon  each  other  so  rapidly 
that  it  is  only  by  the  superior  exercise  of  will 
that  he1  is  able  to  hold  any  one  in  the  field  of 
vision  long  enough  to  describe  it. 

The  psychometer  is  clairvoyant,  that  is,  he 
sees  with  the  inner  eye  (of  the  soul.)  Unless 
his  will-power  is  strong  enough,  and  he  be  thor- 
oughly trained  to  that  particular  phenomena, 
and  his  knowledge  of  the  capabilities  of  his 
sight  is  profound,  his  perception  of  places,  per- 
sons and  events  must  necessarily  be  confused. 
But  in  case  of  mesmerization,  in  which  this  same 
clairvoyant  faculty  is  developed,  the  operator, 
whose  will  holds  that  of  the  subject  under  con- 
trol, can  force  him  to  concentrate  his  attention 
upon  a  given  picture  long  enough  to  observe  all 
its  minute  details. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  magnetizations.  The 
first  is  purely  animal;  the  other  transcendant 
and  depending  on  the  will  and  knowledge  of 
the  mesmerizer,  as  well  as  on  the  degree  of  spir- 


27 


ituality  of  the  subject  and  his  capacity  to  receive 
the  impression  of  the  astral  light.  But  now  it 
is  next  to  ascertain  that  clairvoyance  depends 
a  great  deal  more  on  the  former  than  on  the 
latter.  To  the  power  of  an  adept,  like  Du 
Potet,  the  most  positive  subject  has  to  submit. 
If  his  sight  is  ably  directed  by  the  mesmerizer, 
magician  or  spirit,  the  light  must  yield  up  its  j 
most  sacred  records  to  our  scrutiny;  for  it  is  a  i 
book  which  is  ever  closed  to  those  "  who  see 
and  do  not  perceive;"  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  j 
ever  open  for  one  who  wills  to  see  it  opened,  i 
It  keeps  an  unmutilated  record  of  all  that  was, 
that  is,  or  ever  will  be.  The  minutest  acts  of 
our  lives  are  imprinted  on  it,  and  even  our  very 
thoughts  rest  photographed  on  its  eternal  tablets. 
It  is  the  book  which  we  see  opened  by  the  an- 
gel in  the  "  Revelations,"  which  is  the  book  of 
life,  out  of  which  the  dead  are  judged  "  accord- 
ing to  their  works."  It  is,  in  short,  the  memory 
of  God. 

Soul. 

Plato,  Anaxagoras,  Pythagoras,  and  the  Ele- 
atic  schools  of  Greece,  as  well  as  the  old  Chal- 
dean sacerdotal  colleges,  all  taught  the  doctrine 
of  the  dual  evolution;  the  transmigration  of 
souls  referring  only  to  the  progress  of  man  from 
world  to  world  after  death'  here.  Every  philos- 
opher worthy  of  the  name  taught  that  the  spirit 
of  man,  if  not  the  soul,  was  pre-existent.  "The 
Essenes,"  says  Jose phus,  "believed  that  souls 
were  immortal,  and  that  they  descended  from 
ethereal  space  to  be  chained  to  bodies."  Philo 
Judaeus  says,  "the  air  is  full  of  them  (of  souls); 
those  which  are  nearest  the  earth  descending  to 
be  tied  to  mortal  bodies,  and  return  to  other 
bodies,  being  desirous  to  live  in  them."  Noth- 
ing is  eternal  and  unchangeable  save  the  con- 
cealed Deity.  Everything  else  must  either  pro- 
gress or  recede;  it  cannot  remain  stationary. 

A  spirit  which  thirsts  after  a  reunion  with  its 
soul,  which  alone  confers  upon  it  immortality, 
must  purify  itself  through  cyclic  transmigrations 
onward  toward  the  land  of  bliss  and  eternal 
rest."  According  to  the  Sohar,  all  souls  are 
dual,  and  while  the  latter  is  a  feminine  princi- 
ple, the  spirit  is  masculine;  that  the  soul  could 
not  bear  this  light  but  for  the  luminous  mantle 
which  she  puts  on;  for  just  as  the  soul,  when 
sent  to  this  earth,  puts  on  an  earthly  garment 


to  present  herself  here,  so  she  receives  above  a 
shining  garment,  in  order  to  be  able  to  look, 
without  injury,  into  the  mirror,  whose  light  pro- 
ceeds from  the  Lord  of  light.  While  imprisoned 
in  the  body  a  man  is  a  trinity,  unless  his  pollu- 
tion is  such  as  to  have  caused  his  divorce  from 
the  soul,  which  may  desert  the  spirit  for  the 
crimes  and  wickedness  done  when  in  the  body. 
1 '  Woe  to  the  spirit  which  prefers  to  her  divine 
husband  (soul)  the  earthly  wedlock  with  her 
terrestrial  body." 

"All  souls  which  have  alienated  themselves 
in  heaven  from  the  Holy  One,  have  thrown 
themselves  into  an  abyss,  at  their  very  existence, 
and  have  anticipated  the  time  when  they  are  to 
descend  on  earth.  *  *  It  carries  a  spark  of 
the  Divine  Mind  to  guide  and  direct  it  back  to 
God.  It  becomes  incarnated  in  the  flesh,  and 
thereby  it  forms  for  itself  an  individual  exist- 
ence, to  reason  and  think  for  itself,  which  indi- 
viduality it  ever  retains,  its  intelligence  rising 
and  progressing  through  countless  aeons,  periods 
and  cycles,  from  sphere  to  sphere,  until  at  last 
it  returns  to  the  bosom  of  the  Divine  Mind, 
whence  it  came.  All  the  animal  soul  must  of 
course  be  disintegrated  of  its  particles  before  it 
is  able  to  link  its  pure  essence  forever  with  the 
Immortal  Spirit. 

St.  Paul  makes  man  a  trine — flesh,  psychical 
existence  or  spirit,,  and  the  overshadowing  and 
at  the  same  time  interior  entity  or  soul.  He 
maintains  that  there  is  a  physical  body  which  is 
sown  in  the  corruptible,  and  a  spiritual  body 
that  is  raised  in  incorruptible  substance.  "  The 
first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy;  the  second  man 
from  heaven."  Plato,  speaking  of  the  soul 
(psuche),  observes  that  "  when  she  allies  herself 
to  nous  (divine  substance,  a  god,  as  psuche  as  a 
goddess),  she  does  everything  aright  and  felicit- 
ously; but  the  case  is  otherwise  when  she 
attaches  herself  to  annoia."  What  Plato  calls 
nous,  Paul  terms  the  spirit;  and  Jesus  makes  the 
heart  what  Paul  calls  the  flesh.  Pythagoras 
makes  the  soul  a  self-moving  unit,  with  three 
elements:  the  rous,  the  phren,  and  the  thumos; 
the  two  latter  shared  with  brutes,  the  former 
only  being  his  essential  self.  Whether  Pythag- 
oras borrowed  it  from  Buddha  or  Buddha  from 
somebody  else  it  matters  not;  the  esoteric  doc- 
trine is  the  same. 

"  Socrates  thought  that  he  had  a  demon,  a  spir- 


28 


itual  something,  which  put  him  on  the  road  to 
wisdom.  He  himself  knew  nothing,  but  this 
put  him  in  the  way  to  learn  all."  This  shows 
that  he  was  what  is  now  called  a  clairaudent 
medium,  speaking  from  knowledge  from  within. 
So  was  Plato  when  he  said  ' '  there  was  an  Aga- 
thon  (Supreme  God),  who  produced  in  his  own 
mind  a  paradeigma  of  all  things."  He  taught 
that  in  man  has  "  the  immortal  principle  of  the 
soul,"  a  mortal  body,  and  a  separate  mortal 
kind  of  soul,  which  was  placed  in  a  separate 
receptacle  of  the  body  from  the  other!  The 
immortal  part  was  in  the  head  (Tivueus,  xix, 
xx),  the  other  in  the  trunk. 

"Plato  and  Pythagoras,"  says  Plutarch, 
"distribute  the  soul  into  two  parts,  the  rational 
(noetic)  and  the  irrational  (agnoia.)  That  part 
of  the  soul  of  man  which  is  rational  is  eternal; 
for  though  it  be  not  God,  yet  it  is  the  product 
of  an  eternal  Deity;  but  that  part  of  the  soul 
which  is  divested  of  reason  (agnoia)  dies." 

"  Man,"  says  Plutarch,  "  is  compound;  and 
they  are  mistaken  who  think  him  to  be  com- 
pounded of  two  parts  only;  for  they  imagine 
that  the  understanding  is  a  part  of  the  soul;  but 
they  err  in  this  no  less  than  those  who  make  the 
soul  to  be  a  part  of  the  body,  for  the  under- 
standing (nous),  which  as  far  exceeds  the  soul 
as  the  soul  is  better  and  diviner  than  the  body. 
Now  this  composition  of  soul  (vous)  with  the 
understanding  (nous)  makes  reason ;  and  with  the 
body  passion;  of  which  one  is  the  beginning  of 
the  principle  of  pleasure  and  pain,  and  the  other 
of  virtue  and  vice.  Of  these  three  parts,  con- 
joined and  compacted  together,  the  earth  has 
given  the  body,  the  moon  the  soul,  and  the  sun 
the  understanding  of  the  generation  of  man." 

"  The  damonium  of  Socrates  was  this  vous 
mind,  spirit  or  understanding  of  the  divine  in  it. 
This  nous  of  Socrates,"  says  Plutarch,  "  was 
pure,  and  mixed  itself  with  the  body  no  more 
than  necessity  required.  *  *  *  Every  soul 
hath  some  portion  of  vous  reason;  a  man  cannot 
be  a  man  without  it;  but  as  much  of  each  soul 
as  is  mixed  with  flesh  and  appetite  is  changed, 
and  through  pain  or  pleasure  becomes  irrational. 
Every  soul  doth  not  mix  herself  after  one  sort. 
Some  plunge  themselves  into  the  body,  and  so 
in  this  life  their  whole  frame  is  corrupted  by 
appetite  and  passion;  others  are  mixed  as  to 
some  part.     But  the  purer  part  (nous)  still  re- 1 


mains  without  the  body.  It  is  not  drawn  down 
into  the  body,  but  swims  above  and  touches 
(overshadows)  the  extremest  part  of  the  man's 
head.  It  is  like  a  cord  to  hold  up  and  direct 
the  subsiding  part  of  the  soul,  as  long  as  it 
proves  obedient  and  is  not  overcome  by  the 
appetites  of  the  flesh.  The  part  that  is  plunged 
into  the  body  is  called  soul.  But  the  incorrup- 
tible part  is  called  the  nous  and  the  vulgar  think 
it  is  within  them,  as  they  likewise  imagine  the 
image  reflected  from  a  glass  to  be  in  the  glass. 
But  the  more  intelligent,  who  know  it  to  be 
without,  call  it  a  da>mon  (a  god  or  spirit)." 

"  The  soul,  like  to  a  dream,  flies  quick  away, 
which  it  does  not  immediately  as  soon  as  it  is 
separated  from  the  body,  but  afterward  when 
it  is  alone  and  divided  from  the  understanding 
(nous)  *  *  *  The  soul  being  molded  and 
formed  by  the  understanding  (nous),  and  itself 
molding  and  forming  the  body  by  embracing  it 
on  every  side,  receives  from  it  an  impression 
and  form;  so  that  although  it  be  separated  both 
from  the  understanding  and  the  body,  it  never- 
theless so  retains  still  its  figure  and  resemblance 
for  a  long  time  that  it  may  with  good  right  be 
called  its  image." 

Plato  (in  Laws  X)  defines  soul  as  "the 
motion  that  is  able  to  move  icself.  Soul  is  the 
most  ancient  of  all  things,  and  the  commence- 
ment of  motion.  Soul  was  generated  prior  to 
body,  and  body  is  posterior  and  secondary,  as 
being  according  to  nature,  ruled  over  by  the 
ruling  'soul.  The  soul,  which  administers  all 
things  that  move  in  every  way,  administers 
likewise  the  heavens. 

"Soul,  then,  leads  everything  in  heaven  and 
on  earth  and  in  the  sea,  by  its  movements,  the 
names  of  which  are,  to  will,  to  consider,  to  take 
care  of,  to  consult,  to  form  opinions  true  and 
false,  to  be  in  a  state  of  joy,  sorrow,  confidence, 
fear,  hate,  love,  together  with  all  such  primary 
movements  as  are  allied  to  these.  *  *  Being 
a  goddess  herself,  she  ever  takes  as  an  ally  nous, 
a  god,  and  disciplines  all  things  correctly  and 
happily.  But  when  with  annoia,  not  nous,  it 
works  out  everything  the  contrary." 

Pythagoras,  Plato,  Timaeus  of  Locris,  and 
the  whole  Alexandrian  school,  derived  the  soul 
from  the  Universal  World  Soul;  and  the  latter 
was,  according  to  their  own  teachings,  ether 
— something  of  such  a  fine  nature  as  only  to  be 


29 


perceived  by  our  inner  sight.  Therefore  it  cannot 
be  the  essence  of  the  monas  or  cause,  because 
the  anima  mundi  is  but  the  effect,  the  objective 
emanation,  of  the  former.  But  the  human 
spirit  and  soul  are  pre-existent;  but  while  the 
former  exists  as  a  distinct  entity,  an  individuali- 
zation, the  soul  exists  as  pre-existing  matter, 
an  unscient  portion  of  an  intelligent  whole. 
Both  were  originally  formed  from  the  Eternal 
Ocean  of  Light;  but,  as  the  Theosophists  ex- 
pressed it,  there  is  a  visible  as  well  as  invisible 
spirit.  They  made  a  difference  between  the 
anima  bruta  and  the  anima  dtiina. 

Empedocles  firmly  believed  all  men  and  all 
animals  to  possess  two  souls;  Aristotle,  we 
find,  calls  one  the  reasoning  soul  (rois),  and  the 
other  the  animal  soul  (xvxg).  According  to 
these  philosophers,  the  reasoning  soul  came 
from  without  the  Universal  Soul,  and  the  other 
from  within.  This  divine  and  superior  region, 
in  which  they  located  the  supreme  Deity,  was 
considered  by  them  (by  Aristotle  himself)  as  a 
fifth  element,  purely  spiritual  and  divine;  where- 
as the  anima  mundi  proper  was  considered  as 
composed  of  a  fine  igneous  and  ethereal  nature 
spread  throughout  the  universe,  in  short,  ether. 
The  Stoics,  the  greatest  materialists  of  ancient 
days,  excepted  the  invisible  God  and  Divine 
Soul  (spirit)  from  any  such  a  corporeal  nature. 
Their  modern  commentators  and  admirers, 
greedily  seizing  the  opportunity,  built  on  this 
ground  the  supposition  that  the  Stoics  believed 
in  neither  God  nor  soul.  But  Epicurus,  whose 
doctrine,  militating  directly  against  the  agency 
of  a  Supreme  Being  and  gods  in  the  formation 
and  government  of  the  world,  placed  him  far 
above  the  Stoics  in  atheism  and  materialism, 
taught,  nevertheless,  that  the  soul  is  of  a  fine, 
tender  essence,  formed  from  the  smoothest, 
roundest  and  finest  atoms,  which  description 
still  brings  us  to  the  sublimated  ether.  Arns- 
bius,  Tertullian,  Irengeus  and  Origen,  notwith- 
standing their  Christianity,  believed,  with  the 
more  modern  Spinoza  and  Hobbes,  that  the 
soul  was  corporeal  though  of  a  very  fine  nature, 
yet  retained  the  form  of  the  person  while  living, 
and  could  be  so  identified  in  the  spirit  world. 

As  to  the  human  spirit,  the  notions  of  the 
older  philosophers  and  mediaeval  Kabalists, 
while  differing  in  some  particulars,  agreed  in  the 
whole,  so  that  the   doctrine  of  the  one  is  the 


doctrine  of  the  other.  The  most  substantial 
difference  consisted  in  the  location  of  the  im- 
mortal or  divine  spirit  of  man.  While  the  an- 
cient Neoplatonists  held  that  the  Angocides 
never  descended  hypostatically  into  the  living 
man,  but  only  shed  more  or  less  its  radiance  on 
the  inner  man,  the  astral  soul,  the  Kabalists  of 
the  middle  ages  maintained  that  the  spirit,  de- 
taching itself  from  the  ocean  of  light  and  spirit, 
entered  into  man's  soul,  where  it  remained 
through  life,  imprisoned  in  the  astral  capsules. 
This  difference  was  the  result  of  the  belief  of 
Christian  Kabalists,  more  or  less,  in  the  dead 
letter  of  the  allegory  of  the  fall  of  man.  The 
soul,  they  said,  became,  through  the  fall  of 
Adam,  contaminated  with  the  world  of  matter, 
or  satan.  Before  it  could  appear  with  its  in- 
closed divine  spirit  in  the  presence  of  the  Eter- 
nal, it  had  to  purify  itself  of  the  impurities  of 
darkness.  They  compared  the  spirit  imprisoned 
within  the  soul  to  a  drop  of  water  inclosed 
within  a  capsule  of  gelatine  and  thrown  into  the 
ocean;  so  long  as  the  capsule  remains  whole 
the  drop  of  water  remains  isolated;  break  the 
envelope  and  the  drop  becomes  a  part  of  the 
ocean — its  individual  existence  has  ceased.  So 
it  is  with  the  spirit.  As  long  as  it  is  inclosed 
in  its  plastic  mediator,  or  soul,  it  has  an  indi- 
vidual existence.  Destroy  the  capsule,  a  result 
which  may  occur  from  the  agonies  of  withered 
conscience,  crime  and  moral  disease,  the  spirit 
returns  back  to  its  original  abode:  its  individu- 
ality is  gone. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  philosophers  who  ex- 
plained the  "  fall  into  generation  "  in  their  own 
way,  viewed  spirit  as  something  wholly  distinct 
from  the  soul.  They  allowed  its  presence  in 
the  astral  capsule  only  so  far  as  the  spiritual 
emanation  or  rays  of  the  "  shining  one"  were 
concerned.  Man  and  soul  had  to  conquer 
their  immortality  by  ascending  toward  the  unity 
with  which,  if  successful,  they  were  kindly 
linked,  and  into  which  they  were  absorbed,  so 
to  say.  The  individualization  of  man  after 
death  depended  on  the  spirit,  not  on  the  soul 
and  body.  Although  the  word  "  personality," 
in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  usually  understood, 
is  an  absurdity  if  applied  literally  to  our  immor- 
tal essence;  still  the  latter  is  a  distirfct  unity, 
immortal  and  natural  per  se,  and,  as  in  the  case 
of  criminals  beyond  redemption,  when  the  shin- 


30 


ing  thread  which  links  the  spirit  to  the  soul  from 
the  moment  of  the  birth  of  a  child,  is  violently 
snapped,  and  the  disembodied  entity  is  left  to 
share  the  fate  of  the  lower  animals,  to  gradually 
dissolve  into  ether,  and  have  its  individuality 
annihilated,  even  then  the  spirit  remains  a  dis- 
tinct being.  It  becomes  a  planetary  spirit,  an 
angel ;  for  the  gods  of  pagans  or  the  archangels  of 
Christians,  the  direct  emanations  of  the  First 
Cause,  notwithstanding  the  hazardous  statement 
of  Swedenborg,  never  were  or  will  be  men  on 
our  planet  at  least;  while  the  modern  Spiritual- 
ist, like  A.J.  Davis  and  others,  contend  that  a 
soul  once  born,  ever  following  the  law  of  pro- 
gress, goes  on  ever  growing  wiser  and  better 
until  it  ascends  to  the  seventh  heaven,  when  it 
has  become  perfectly  divested  of  all  impurity. 
This  leads  us  back  to  the  ancient  doctrine  of 
emanation  and  absorption;  yet  even  then  it  may 
retain  its  individuality  and  a  remembrance  of 
the  past. 

This  speculation  has  been  in  all  ages  the 
stumbling  block  of  metaphysicians.  The  whole 
esoterism  of  the  Buddhistical  philosophy  is  based 
on  this  mysterious  teaching,  understood  by  a 
few  persons  and  so  totally  misunderstood  by 
many  of  the  most  learned  scholars.  Even  met- 
aphysicians are  inclined  to  confound  the  ef- 
fect with  the  cause.  A  person  may  have  won 
his  immortal  life  and  remain  the  same  inner  self 
he  was  on  earth  through  eternity;  but  this  does 
not  imply  necessarily  that  he  must  either  remain 
the  Mr.  Brown  or  Mr.  Smith  he  was  on  earth  or 
lose  his  individuality.  Therefore  the  astial  soul 
and  terrestrial  body  of  man  may,  in  the  dark 
hereafter,  be  absorbed  into  the  cosmical  ocean 
of  sublimated  elements  and  cease  to  feel  his 
ego,  if  this  ego  did  not  deserve  to  soar  higher, 
and  the  divine  spirit  still  remain  an  unchanged 
entity,  though  this  terrestrial  experience  of  his 
emanations,  may  be  totally  obliterated  at  the 
instant  of  separation  from  the  body. 


The  Soul  is  Eternal. 
If  the  spirit,  or  the  divine  portion  of  the  soul, 
is  pre-existent  as  a  distinct  being,  from  all  eter- 
nity, as  Origen,  Sinesius,  and  other  Christian 
fathers  and  philosophers  taught;  and  if  it  is  the 
same,  and  nothing  more,  than  the  metaphysic- 
ally-objective soul,  how  can  it  be  otherwise  than 
eternal  ?     And  what  matters  it,  in  such  a  case, 


whether  man  leads  an  animal  or  pure  life,  if,  do 
what  he  may,  he  can  never  lose  his  individual- 
ity ?  This  doctrine  is  as  pernicious  in  its  con- 
sequences as  that  of  vicarious  atonement.  Had 
the  latter  dogma,  in  company  with  the  false 
idea  that  we  are  all  immortals,  been  demon- 
strated to  the  world  in  its  true  light,  humanity 
would  have  been  bettered  by  its  propagation. 
Crime  and  sin  would  be  avoided,  not  for  fear 
of  earthly  punishment  or  of  a  ridiculous  hell, 
but  for  the  sake  of  that  which  lies  the  most 
deeply  rooted  in  our  inner  nature — the  desire  of 
an  individual  and  distinct  life  hereafter,  the 
positive  assurance  that  we  cannot  win  it  unless 
we  "  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  violence," 
and  the  conviction  that  neither  human  prayers 
nor  the  blood  of  another  man  will  save  us  from 
individual  destruction  after  death,  unless  we 
firmly  link  ourselves  during  our  terrestrial  life 
with  our  own  immortal  spirit — our  God. 

No  astral  soul  (that  is,  the  spiritual  body), 
even  that  of  a  pure,  good  and  virtuous  man,  is 
immortal  in  the  strictest  sense.  "  From  ele- 
ments it  is  formed,  to  elements  it  must  return." 
Only  while  the  soul  of  the  wicked  vanishes,  and 
is  absorbed  beyond  redemption,  that  of  every 
other  person,  even-  moderately  pure,  simply 
changes  its  ethereal  particles  for  still  more  ethe- 
real ones;  and  while  there  remains  in  it  a  speck 
of  the  divine,  the  individual  man,  or  rather  his 
personal  ego,  must  die  in  the  endless  course  of 
time.  "  After  death,"  says  Proclus,  "  the  soul 
(the  spirit)  continueth  to  linger  in  the  aerial 
body  (astral  form)  until  it  is  entirely  purified 
from  all  angry  and  voluptuous  passions;  *  * 
then  doth  it  put  off  by  a  second  dying  the  aerial 
body  as  it  did  the  earthly  one."  Whereupon 
the  ancients  say  that  there  is  a  celestial  body 
always  joined  with  the  soul,  and  which  is  im- 
mortal, luminous  and  star-like. 

The  Chaldean  magi  were  the  masters  in  the 
secret  doctrine,  and  it  was  during  the  Babylon- 
ian captivity  that  the  Jews  learned  its  metaphy- 
sics as  well  as  the  practical  tenets,  and  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul.  Before  this  time  the 
Jews  believed  that  it  was  necessary  to  propitiate 
God  with  burnt  offerings,  so  that  they  might  be 
blessed  in  this  life  with  success,  they  and  their 
offspring.  The  Bible  nowhere  teaches  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  prior  to  this  period.  Pliny 
mentions   three   schools  of  Magi,  one  that  he 


31 


shows  to  have  been  founded  at  an  unknown 
antiquity;  the  other  established  by  Osthanes 
and  Zoroaster.  These  different  schools,  wheth- 
er Magian,  Egyptian  or  Jewish,  were  derived 
from  India,  or  rather  from  both  sides  of  the 
Himalayas.  Many  a  lost  secret  lies  buried  un- 
der wastes  of  sands  in  the  Gobi  desert  of  East- 
ern Turkestan,  and  the  wise  men  of  Khotan 
have  preserved  strange  traditions  and  knowledge 
of  alchemy. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  the  teachings  of  the 
old  philosophers:  the  spirit  alone  is  immortal — 
the   soul  per  se  is   neither  eternal  nor  divine. 
When  linked  too  closely  with  the  physical  brain 
of  its  terrestrial  casket,  it  gradually  becomes  a 
finite  mind,  a  simple  animal  and  sentient  life- 
principle  (the   nephesh  of   the    Hebrew  Bible): 
"  And  God  created    *  *  *  every  nephesh  (life) 
that  moveth  "  (Genesis  1:21),  meaning  animals, 
and  (Genesis  11:7)  it  is  said:  "And  man  be- 
came a  nephesh"  (living  soul),  which  shows  that 
the  word   nephesh  was   indifferently   applied  to 
immortal  man  and  mortal  beast.     So  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  common  people  among  the  He- 
brews  had  not  the   slightest  idea  of  soul  and 
spirit,   and  made   no   difference   between  life, 
blood,  and  soul,  calling  the  latter  the  "  breath 
of  life,"  using  the   word  soul   promiscuously  to 
express  life,  blood,  spirit  and  body.     The  phi- 
losophers  and   most  of  the   modern   spiritual 
writers   make   the  soul  the  divine  spark,  while 
Plato  and  the  ancients  often  make  it  the  spirit.. 
Baron  Bunsen  shows  that  the  origin  of  the 
prayers  and  hymns  of  the  Egyptian  Book  of  the 
Dead  is  anterior  to  Menes  and  belongs  proba- 
bly to  the  pro-Menite  Dynasty  of  Abydos,  be- 
tween  3,100   and   4,600  years   before   Christ. 
The    learned   Egyptologist   makes   the   era  of 
Menes,  or  national  empire,  as  not  later  than 
3,056  B.  C.  and  demonstrates  that  "  the  system 
of  Osirian  worship  and  mythology  was  already 
formed  before  the  era."     "  We  find  hymns  and 
lessons  of  morality  identical,  or  nearly  so,  in 
form   and  expression  with  those   delivered   by 
Jesus  in  his  sermon  on  the  mount,"  says  Bunsen. 
Extracts  from  the  Hermetic,  books  are  found 
on  the  monuments  and  in  the  tombs,  such  as 
these,  "  To  feed  the  hungry,  give  drink  to  the 
thirsty,  clothe  the  naked,  bury  the  dead,"  *  * 
"  formed  the  first  duty  of  a  pious  man." 

Back  of  all   religions  and  civilizations  there 


appears  to  be  another  still  older,  until  we  are 
lost  in  the  gray  mist  of  time  that  may  have  ex- 
isted twenty  or  fifty  thousand  years  ago. 

The  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
is  as  old  as  this  period  (Tablet  Brit.  Mus.362), 
and  perhaps  far  older.  It  dates  from  the  time 
when  the  soul  was  an  objective  being,  hence 
when  it  could  hardly  be  denied  by  itself;  when 
humanity  was  a  spiritual  race  and  death  existed 
not.  Toward  the  decline  of  the  cycle  of  life, 
the  ethereal  man  spirit  then  fell  into  the  sweet 
slumber  of  temporary  unconsciousness  in  one 
sphere  only  to  find  himself  awakening  in  the 
still  brighter  light  of  a  higher  one.  But  while 
the  spiritual  man  is  ever  striving  to  ascend  higher 
and  higher  toward  its  source  of  being,  passing 
through  the  cycles  and  spheres  of  individual  life, 
physical  man  had  to  descend  with  the  great  cy- 
cle of  universal  creation  until  it  found  itself 
clothed  with  the  terrestrial  garments.  Thence- 
forth the  soul  was  too  deeply  buried  in  its  phys- 
ical clothing  to  reassert  its  existence,  except  in 
the  cases  of  those  mortal  spiritual  natures  which, 
with  ever)'  cycle,  became  more  rare;  but  now 
and  then  it  cropped  out  in  a  bright  character, 
so  pure,  wise  and  good,  that  they  have  been 
deified  and  called  gods,  like  Jesus  Christ,  Zoro- 
aster, Buddha,  Confucius,  etc. 

The  fall  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  garden  of 
Eden,  by  eating  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  must 
not  be  looked  upon  it  as  a  personal  transgres- 
sion of  the  law  of  God,  but  simply  the  law  of 
dual  evolution.  Adam,  or  the  first  man,  began 
his  career  of  existence  by  dwelling  in  the  garden 
of  Eden,  dressed  in  the  celestial  garment  which 
is  a  "  garment  of  heavenly  light."  (Sohar, 
II.  2Q.)  But  when  expelled,  he  is  "clothed" 
by  God,  or  the  eternal  law  of  evolution,  or 
necessarianism,  with  coats  of  flesh,  skin  and 
hair.  It  only  relates  to  the  time  when  the  di- 
vine spark  (soul,  a  corruscation  of  the  spirit) 
was  to  become  incarnated  in  the  flesh,  which 
had  evolved  by  physical  laws  of  progression  in 
a  series  of  imprisonments,  from  a  stone  up 
through  a  long  line  of  animal  developments  to 
the  body  of  a  man;  and  if  he  will  but  exercise 
his  will  and  call  upon  his  deity  to  help  him,  man 
can  transcend  the  powers  of  the  angel.  "  Know 
ye  not  that  we  shall  judge  angels?"  asked  St. 
Paul  (1  Corinthians,  6:3).  "The  real  man  is 
the   soul  (spirit),"  teaches   the  Sohar.     "The 


32 


mystery  of  the  earthly  man  is  after  the  mystery 
of  the  heavenly  man.  *  *  *  The  wise  can 
read  the  mysteries  in  the  human  face."  (11:76a.) 

According  to  the  Chaldean  doctrine  found  in 
the  Kabala,  the  Jehovah  of  the  Jews  was  one  of 
the  emanations  of  the  divine  essence,  and  was 
androgynous,  being  male  and  female,  like  all 
angels,  double-sexed.  As  Brahma,  the  deity, 
manifested  in  the  mythical  Manu,  or  the  first 
man  born  of  Sway-ambhvua,  or  the  Self-exist- 
ence, is  finite,  so  Jehovah,  embodied  in  Adam 
and  Eve,  is  but  a  human-god,  male  and  female, 
or  the  realization  of  humanity  embodied  in  the 
first  man.  Like  the  androgynous  man,  male  and 
female,  passive  and  active,  created  in  the  im- 
age of  the  Elohim.  But  these  androgynes  were 
doomed  to  fall  and  lose  their  powers  as  soon  as 
the  two  halves  of  the  duality  separated.  Hence 
we  have  the  fall  of  man  by  eating  the  forbidden 
fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge;  he  thus  lost  his 
spiritual  clothing  and  became  clothed  in  flesh 
and  skin  and  was  material,  so  that  he  could  not 
rise  from  the  earth.  So  out  of  the  rib  of  the 
first  man,  Adam,  sprang  Eve,  the  first  woman, 
by  the  law  of  materialization. 

This  idea  is  beautifully  expressed  in  the  Ori- 
ental religion:  "When  the  Central  Invisible 
(the  Lord  Ferho)  saw  the  efforts  of  the  divine 
Scintilla,  unwilling  to  be  dragged  lower  down 
into  the  degradation  of  matter,  to  liberate  itself, 
he  permitted  it  to  shoot  out  from  itself  a  monad 
(an  ultimate  atom),  over  which,  attached  to  it 
as  by  the  finest  thread,  the  divine  scintilla  (the 
soul)  had  to  watch  during  its  ceaseless  peregrin- 
ations from  one  to  another.  Thus  the  monad 
was  shot  down  into  the  first  form  of  matter  and 
became  encased  in  stone;  then,  in  course  of 
time,  through  the  combined  efforts  of  living  fire 
and  living  water,  both  of  which  shone  by  their 
reflection  upon  the  stone,  the  monad  crept  out 
of  its  prison  to  sunlight  as  a  lichen,  one  of  the 
lowest  forms  of  vegetable  life.  From  change  to 
change  it  went  higher  and  higher;  the  monad, 
with  every  new  transformation  borrowing  more 
of  the  radiance  of  its  parent  scintilla,  which 
approached  it  nearer  at  every  transmigration. 
For  "  the  First  Cause  had  willed  it  to  proceed 
in  this  order,"  and  destined  it  to  creep  on  high- 
er until  its  physical  form  became  once  more  the 
Adam  of  dust,  shaped  in  the  image  of  Adam 
Kadmon. 


Before  undergoing  its  last  earthly  transform- 
ation, the  external  covering  of  the  monad,  from 
the  moment  of  its  conception  as  an  embryo, 
passes  in  turn  once  more  through  the  phases  of 
the  several  kingdoms.  In  its  fluidic  prison  it 
assumes  a  vague  resemblance  at  various  periods 
of  its  gestation  to  plant,  reptile,  bird,  and  ani- 
mal, until  it  becomes  a  human  embryo.  At 
the  birth  of  the  future  man,  the  monad,  radiat- 
ing with  all  the  glory  of  its  immortal  parent, 
which  watches  it  from  the  seventh  sphere,  be- 
comes senseless.  (See  Plato's  Timceus.)  "  It 
loses  all  recollection  of  the  past  and  returns  to 
consciousness  but  gradually,  when  the  instinct 
of  childhood  gives  way  to  reason  and  intelli- 
gence. After  the  separation  between  the  life- 
principle  (astral  spirit)  and  the  body  takes  place 
(i.  e.  in  death),  the  liberated  soul,  monad,  ex- 
ulting rejoins  the  mother  and  father  spirit,  the 
glory  proportioned  to  the  spiritual  purity  of  the 
past  earth-life,  the  Adam  who  has  completed 
the  circle  of  necessity  and  is  freed  from  the  last 
vestige  of  his  physical  encasement.  Hence- 
forth, growing  more  and  more  radiant  at  each 
step  of  his  upward  progress,  he  mounts  the 
shining  path  that  ends  at  the  point  from  which 
he  started  around  the  Grand  Cycle. 

For  each  human  spirit  is  a  scintilla  of  the  one 
all-pervading  light,  and  this  is  in  accordance  to 
Buddhist  doctrine,  which  is  that  the  individual 
human  spirits  are  numberless — collectively  they 
are  one,  as  every  drop  of  water  drawn  from  out 
the  ocean  is  a  part  of  it,  and  yet,  metaphorically 
speaking,  may  have  an  individual  existence,  and 
still  be  one  with  the  rest  of  the  drops  going  to 
form  that  ocean,  though  it  may  take  millions  of 
years  to  find  its  way  back  whence  it  came;  yet 
during  all  that  time  it  retained  its  individuality, 
whether  in  vapor,  in  sap  of  plants  or  trees,  or 
the  blood  of  animals,  until  it  mingled  again 
with  the  waters  whence  it  came;  that  this  di- 
vine spirit  animates  the  flower,  the  particle  of 
granite  on  the  mountain  side,  the  lion  and  the 
man,  when  it  was  individualized  into  an  intelli- 
gent, thinking  soul,  that  followed  the  law  of  pro- 
gress, and  ascended  higher  and  higher  in  wis- 
dom and  intelligence,  until  it  again  returned  to 
the  great  sensorum  whence  it  emanated. 

In  Art  Magic,  page  27,  there  is  an  account 
of  a  remarkable  medium,  a  Hindoo  child  twelve 
years  of  age,  the  daughter  of  a  noble  Hindoo  of 


high  spiritual  and  intellectual  attainments. 
This  little  child  was  a  great  writing  medium. 
She  sits  on  the  floor  with  her  head  resting  on  a 
tripod,  embracing  its  support  with  her  little 
arms,  and  in  this  attitude  she  generally  falls 
asleep  for  an  hour,  during  which  time  sheet 
after  sheet  is  written  over  with  characters  of 
ancient  Sanscrit.  The  writing  is  done  by  an 
invisible  hand  without  even  the  ordinary  appli- 
ances of  pens,  pencil  or  ink.  Over  four  vol- 
umes of  these  writings  have  been  thus  produced, 
and  that  in  less  than  a  period  of  three  years. 
Questions  in  simple  Hindostanee  are  laid  upon 
the  tripod  with  a  lot  of  blank  paper,  and  the 
questions  are  answered  intelligibly.  In  answer 
to  several  questions  concerning  the  origin  of  the 
soul,  and  the  doctrine  of  its  transmigration 
through  the  forms  of  animals,  she  wrote  in  San- 
scrit the  following,  which  is  a  translation: 

"That  the  soul  is  an  emanation  from  the 
Deity,  and  in  its  original  essence  is  all  purity, 
truth  and  wisdom,  is  an  axiom  which  the  dis- 
embodied learn,  when  the  powers  of  the  mem- 
ory are  sufficiently  awakened  to  perceive  the 
states  of  existence  anterior  to  mortal  birth.  In 
the  paradise  of  purity  and  love  souls  spring  up 
like  blossoms  in  the  All-Father's  garden  of  im- 
mortal beauty.  It  is  the  tendency  of  that  di- 
vine nature,  whose  chief  attributes  are  love  and 
wisdom,  heat  and  light,  to  repeat  itself  eternally, 
and  mirror  forth  its  own  perfections  in  scintilla- 
tions from  itself.  These  sparks  of  heavenly  fire 
become  souls,  and  as  the  effect  must  share  in 
the  nature  of  the  cause,  the  fire  which  warms 
into  light  also  illuminates  into  light ;  hence  the 
soul  emanations  from  the  Divine  are  all  love 
and  heat,  while  the  illumination  of  light,  which 
streams  ever  from  the  great  central  Sun  of  Be- 
ing, irradiates  all  souls  with  corresponding 
beams  of  light.  Born  of  love,  which  corre- 
sponds to  Divine  heat  and  warmth,  and  irradi- 
ated with  light,  which  is  Divine  wisdom  and 
truth,  the  first  and  most  powerful  soul  emana- 
tions repeated  the  action  of  their  Supreme  Ori- 
nator,  gave  off  emanations  from  their  own  be- 
ing, some  higher,  some  lower,  the  highest  tend- 
ing upward  into  spiritual  essences,  the  lowest 
forming  particles  of  matter.  These  denser  em- 
anations, following  out  the  creative  law,  aggre- 
gated into  suns,  satellites  and  worlds,  and  each 
repeating  the  story  of  creation,  suns  gave  birth 


to  systems,  and  every  member  of  a  system  be- 
came a  theater  of  subordinate  states  of  spiritual 
or  material  existence. 

"  Thus  do  ideas  descend  into  forms  and  forms 
ascend  into  ideas.  Thus  is  the  growth,  devel- 
opment and  progress  of  creation  endless;  and 
thus  must  spirit  originate  and  ever  create  worlds 
of  matter,  for  the  purpose  of  its  own  unfold- 
ment." 

"  Will  the  mighty  march  of  creation  never 
cease  ?  Will  the  cable  anchored  in  the  heart 
of  the  great  mystery,  Deity,  stretch  out  for- 
ever ?" 

"Forever!  shout  the  blazing  suns,  leaping 
on  in  the  fiery  orbit  of  their  shining  life,  and 
traveling  in  the  glittering  pathway  ten  thousand 
satellites  and  meteoric  sparks,  whirling  and 
flashing  in  their  jeweled  crowns,  all  embryonic 
germs  of  new  young  worlds  that  shall  be.    *  * 

"  Earths  that  have  attained  to  the  capacity 
to  support  organic  life,  necessarily  attract  it; 
earths  demand  it,  heaven  supplies  it.  Whence? 
As  earths  groan  for  the  leadership  of  superior 
beings  to  rule  over  them,  the  spirits  in  their 
distant  Edens  hear  the  whispers  of  the  tempting 
serpent,  the  animal  principle,  the  urgent  intel- 
lect, which,  appealing  to  the  blest  souls  in  their 
distant  paradises,  fill  them  with  indescribable 
longings  for  change,  for  broader  vistas  of  know- 
ledge, for  mightier  powers;  they  would  be  as 
the  gods  and  know  good  and  evil;  and  in  this 
urgent  appeal  of  the  earths  for  man,  and  this 
involuntary  yearning  of  the  spirit  for  intellectual 
knowledge,  the  union  is  effected  between  the 
two,  and  the  spirit  becomes  precipitated  into 
the  realms  of  matter,  to  undergo  a  pilgrimage 
through  the  probationary  states  of  the  earths, 
and  only  to  regain  its  paradise  again  by  the 
fulfillment  of  that  pilgrimage. 

"  When  spirits  lived  as  such  in  paradise,  em- 
anations from  a  spiritual  deific  source,  they 
knew  no  sex  nor  reproduced  their  kind.  *  *  * 
When  they  fell,  and  the  earth,  like  magnetic 
tractors,  drew  them  within  the  vortex  of  its 
grosser  elements,  they  became  what  the  earth 
compelled  them  to  be.  In  the  earlier  ages  of 
these  growing  worlds  the  conditions  of  life  were 
rude  and  violent;  hence  the  creatures  on  them 
partook  of  their  nature.  Then  too  first  obtained 
the  nature  of  sex  and  the  law  of  generation. 
To  people  these  earths  man,  like  other  living 


34 


creatures,  must  reproduce  his  kind.  All  things 
in  matter  are  male  and  female;  minerals,  plants, 
animals  andmen.  Spirit,  the  creative  energy,  is 
the  masculine  principle  that  creates;  nature,  the 
passive  recipient,  is  that  which  germinates; 
hence  creation.  Man  must  obey  the  law; 
hence  sex  and  generation.     *     *     * 

"  Man  lives  on  many  earths  before  he  reaches 
this.  Myriads  of  worlds  swarm  in  space,  where 
the  soul  in  rudimental  states  performs  its  pil- 
grimages ere  he  reaches  the  large  and  shining 
planet  named  Earth,  the  glorious  function  of 
which  is  to  confer  self-consciousness.  At  this 
point  only  is  he  man;  at  every  other  stage  of 
his  vast,  wild  journey  he  is  but  an  embryonic 
being;  a  fleeting,  temporary  shape  of  matter;  a 
creature  in  which  a  part,  but  only  a  part,  of  the 
high  imprisoned  soul  shines  forth;  a  rudimental 
shape,  with  rudimental  functions;  ever  living, 
dying — sustaining  a  littering  spiritual  existence 
as  rudimental  as  the  material  shape  whence  it 
emerged;  a  butterfly  springing  up  from  the 
chrysalitic  shell,  but  ever,  as  it  onward  rushes, 
in  new  births,  new  deaths,  new  incarnations, 
anon  to  die  and  live  again,  but  still  stretch  up- 
ward, still  strive  onward,  still  rush  on  the  giddy, 
dreadful,  toilsome,  rugged  path,  until  it  awak- 
ens once  more,  once  more  to  live  and  be  a  ma- 
terial shape,  a  thing  of  dust,  a  creature  of  flesh 
and  blood,  but  now  a  man. 

"It  is  from  the  dim  memory  that  the  soul 
retains  first  of  its  original  brightness  and  fall, 
next  of  its  countless  migrations  through  the 
various  undertones  of  beings  that  antedate  its 
appearance  on  this  earth  as  man,  that  the  belief 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  metempsychosis  (transmi- 
gration of  the  souls  through  the  animal  king- 
doms) has  arisen.  Yet  it  is  a  sin  against  divine 
truth  to  believe  that  the  exalted  soul  that  has 
once  reached  the  dignity  and  upright  stature  of 
manhood  should  or  could  retrograde  into  the 
bodies  of  creeping  things  or  crouching  animals 
— not  so,  not  so! 

"In  the  fleeting  images  which  antecedent 
states  leave  on  the  spiritual  brain,  in  the  half 
effaced  and  half-imperfect  perceptions  of  exist- 


ence which  each  new  stage  of  progress  and  each 
successive  journey  through  various  lower  earths 
leave,  like  an  unquiet,  ill-remembered  dream, 
on  the  spirit's  consciousness,  the  past  becomes 
confused  with  the  present,  and  something  of 
what  we  have  been  imposes  its  shadow  across 
the  path  of  the  future,  as  a  dim  possibility  of 
what  we  may  be. 

"  After  the  soul's  birth  into  humanity  it  ac- 
quires self-consciousness,  knowledge  of  its  own 
individuality,  and  closing  up  forever  its  career 
of  material  transformations  with  the  death  of 
the  mortal  body,  it  gravitates  on  to  a  fresh  series 
of  existences  in  purely  spiritual  realms  of  being. 
Here  the  further  purifications  of  the  soul  com- 
mence anew,  commences  with  that  sublime  at- 
tribute of  self-knowledge  which  enables  even 
the  wickedest  spirit  to  enjoy  and  profit  by  the 
change;  for  memory  supplies  him  with  lessons 
which  urge  him  to  struggle  forward  into  con- 
quest over  sin,  and  prophetic  sight  stimulates 
him  to  aspire  until  he  shall  attain,  by  well  di- 
rected effort,  the  sublime  hights  of  purity  and 
goodness  from  which  he  fell  to  become  a  mor- 
tal pilgrim. 

"  The  triumphant  souls  who  enter  heaven  by 
effort  are  God's  ministering  angels  of  power, 
wisdom,  strength  and  beauty.  The  dwellers  in 
primal  states  of  Eden  are  only  spirits.  The 
first  are  God-men,  heavenly  men — strong  and 
mighty  powers  —  thrones,  dominions,  world- 
builders,  glorious  hierarchies  of  sun,  bright  souls, 
who  never  more  can  fall.  Spirits  are  but  the 
breath,  the  spark,  the  shadow  of  a  god;  angels 
are  gods  in  person.     *     * 

"  During  the  various  transitional  states  of  the 
soul  in  passing  through  the  myriads  of  forms  and 
myriads  of  earths,  whereon  their  probations  are 
outwrought,  the  changes  are  all  effected  by  a 
process  analogous  to  human  death.  During  the 
period  that  subsists  ere  the  soul,  expelled  from 
one  material  shape,  enters  another,  the  drifting 
spirit,  still  enveloped  by  the  magnetic  aural 
body  which  binds  it  to  the  realm  of  matter, 
becomes  for  its  short  term  of  intermediate  spir- 
itual existence  an  elementary  spirit." 


^^*^H£^?^ 


CHAPTER   IV. 

MEDIUMS,  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN. 
Prophets,  Seers,  Magicians,  Soothsayers,  Astrologers,  Fortune-Tellers,  Materializations,  Raps,  Trances. 


From  the  earliest  history  of  man  down  to  the 
present  time  some  persons  have  been  possessed 
of  great  psychological  powers,  and  have  in  all 
countries  held  the  position  of  prophets,  seers, 
magicians,  soothsayers,  astrologers,  medicine- 
men and  fortune-tellers.  Many  of  them  have 
been  exposed  in  their  tricks,  while  others  have 
stood  out  in  bold  relief  as  possessing  a  power  of 
divining  the  future  and  telling  the  past,  reveal- 
ing facts  and  incidents  that  no  one  could  have 
known,  or  were  only  in  possession  of  the  dead. 

There  appears  to  be  a  great  variety  of  gifts 
and  powers  possessed  by  these  persons.  Some 
are  developed  in  one  specialty,  and  others  in 
something  different;  but  they  all  point  in  one 
direction,  and  claim  that  man  exists  after  death, 
that  the  spirit  or  life  -principle  of  man  lives  be- 
yond the  grave,  whether  it  be  from  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible,  Rig- Veda,  Heremetic  books 
of  ancient  Egypt,  the  Zend-Avesta  of  Persia, 
the  Koran  or  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Their 
priests  and  priestesses  are  millions,  and  their 
churches,  temples  and  pagodas  lift  their  spires 
in  every  land;  and  the  great  majority  of  all  peo- 
ple in  all  nations  have  a  religion  and  a  belief 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Man  is  a  reli- 
gious animal,  and  it  arises  from  a  feeling  within 
that  he  cannot  smother  or  keep  down.  It  ever 
rises  up  and  reaches  out  and  will  contemplate 
and  think  of  the  future,  a  life  in  the  spirit  world. 
He  sees  the  dead  bodies  of  his  friends  and  rela- 
tions laid  in  the  cold  grave;  but  he  cannot  rec- 
oncile his  mind,  his  reason,  to  the  belief  that 
that  is  the  last  of  him.  The  body  will  return 
to  the  dust  from  which  it  came,  but  whither  has 
gone  the  life,  the  intelligence  that  once  anim- 
ated the  cold  remains  ?  He  sees  the  birds  fly- 
ing through  the  air,  and  the  smoke  rise  from 
the    burning  logs   that  were  once   living  trees; 


they  are  shortly  consumed  by  the  fire,  there  is 
only  a  small  pile  of  ashes  left;  what  has  become 
of  the  rest  ?  The  smoke  has  disappeared  in  the 
skies;  so,  he  says,  must  the  life,  the  intelligence 
of  his  friends  have  gone  the  same  way.  There 
must  be  some  place  where  all  these  things  have 
gone;  there  must  be  a  great  reservoir  for  all; 
there  must  be  an  invisible  world  as  well  as  a 
visible  world.  Where  it  is,  or  how  it  is,  we 
cannot  tell;  but  it  must  exist;  it  cannot  be  lost; 
there  is  no  annihilation  of  anything;  it  has  only 
changed  its  condition;  that  is  all. 

The  evidence  given  by  the  mediums  is  over- 
whelming, if  we  can  rely  on  their  statements  as 
true,  as  they  have  in  all  ages  been  put  to  the 
severest  test;  but  it  is  something  seen,  heard 
and  felt,  that  is  not  capable  of  explanation  or 
demonstration  upon  any  scientific  basis  known 
to  man;  and  those  who  have  not  that  pecul- 
iar power,  which  compose  the  largest  number, 
are  not  willing  that  a  thing  can  be  seen,  heard 
and  felt  by  some  and  not  by  all. 

And  here  lies  the  great  difficulty  to  make 
them  believe,  for  they  are  not  willing  to  admit 
that  others  have  higher  perception  and  can  see, 
hear  and  see  things  that  they  cannot;  therefore 
they  remain  incredulous  and  skeptical.  And 
there  are  some  whose  moral  and  religious  organs 
are  so  low  that  the  question  might  be,  have 
they  evolved  to  the  condition  of  spiritual  beings, 
or  are  they  still  man-like  apes? 

There  is  something  very  remarkable  about 
this  psychic  force,  or  spiritual  manifestations, 
that  will  not  act  in  the  presence  of  some  per- 
sons while  it  will  make  itself  apparent  with  oth- 
ers. With  some  it  derives  force  and  power, 
while  with  others  it  weakens  and  will  not  act. 
There  is  something  in  their  nature  or  aura  that 
repels  the  spirit,  like  that  of  the  negative  pole 


;<; 


of  the  magnet;  and  especially  where  the  mind  is 
firmly  set,  in  opposition,  of  a  positive  nature — 
not  that  of  disbelief,  but  a  fixed  purpose  not  to 
believe. 

Persons  who  possess  this  mediumship  power 
are  very  sensitive,  and  have  a  large  amount  of 
electricity  in  their  bodies,  which  generate  this 
force  like  the  electric  eel;  and  some  have  it  so 
strong  that  they  are  able  to  give  a  slight  shock 
which  thrills  down  the  spine,  and  are  able  to 
light  a  jet  of  gas  with  the  end  of  their  fingers. 

The  mind  of  the  investigator  should  be  kept 
untrammeled,  free  from  the  influence  of  men, 
authority,  prejudice  or  passion,  so  that  it  may 
have  free  scope  in  the  investigation  of  facts  and 
laws  which  exist  and  are  established  in  nature, 
and  is  the  grand  antecedent  necessity  to  scien- 
tific discovery  and  permanent  progress.  And 
until  men  of  science  can  come  forth  and  inves- 
tigate the  phenomena  of  spiritualism  in  that 
light,  like  Hare,  De  Morgan,  Brookes,  Wal- 
lace, De  Gasparin,  Thury,  Wagner  and  Butlerof, 
etc.  they  will  never  succeed.  These  men  had 
the  manhood  to  admit  the  phenomena,  and 
have  struggled  to  solve  the  mystery  and  see  if  it 
has  any  relation  to  the  existence  of  men's  here- 
after; and  the  only  solution  they  can  find  is, 
that  the  word  comes  back  that  "  man  lives  and 
exists  beyond  the  grave,"  and  that  intelligence 
never  dies,  that  like  matter  and  force  it  is  inde- 
structible. 

In  this  age  of  cold  reason  and  prejudice  even 
the  church  has  to  look  to  science  for  help  to 
support  her  tottering  creeds;  when  in  reality 
these  manifestations  are  the  same  as  those  in  the 
Bible,  and  go  to  explain  it  and  establish  the 
fact  beyond  a  doubt  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul.  But  the  church  is  so  blindly  roped  up  in 
her  creeds  and  dogmas  that  she  is  not  willing  to 
admit  these  facts,  which  come  as  further  evi- 
dence and  as  a  new  addition  to  the  good  old 
book,  but  contend  that  it  is  sealed  and  that  the 
days  of  miracles  and  manifestation  of  the  spirit 
are  gone  by,  and  that  there  are  to  be  no  more 
revelations;  that  those  given  in  the  dim  mists  of 
the  past  are  sufficient,  and  that  it  is  blasphemy 
to  pretend  to  say  that  there  can  be  anything 
more  given  from  on  high. 

Yet  science  and  reason  will  tell  us  that  if 
those  marvelous  powers  ever  existed,  they  can 
be  repeated  now;  that  the  laws  of  God,  which 


are  the  laws  of  nature,  are  unchangeable,  and 
have  always  existed  and  will  forever  exist.  But 
these  new  revelations  tend  to  interfere  with 
some  of  the  established  rules  and  tenets  of  the 
church  and  the  teachings  of  modern  Christian- 
ity, which  have  widely  departed  from  those 
taught  by  the  founders,  for  her  representatives 
have  poisoned  the  waters  of  simple  faith,  and 
now  humanity  mirrors  itself  in  waters  made  tur- 
bid with  all  the  mud  stirred  up  from  the  bottom 
of  the  once  pure  shrine.  The  anthropomorphic 
God  of  our  fathers  is  replaced  by  anthropomor- 
phic monsters,  whose  ripples  send  back  the  dis- 
torted images  of  truth  and  facts,  as  evoked  by 
its  misguided  imagination. 

Those  who  are  soul-blmd  are  constitutionally 
incapable  of  distinguishing  psychological  causes 
from  material  effects,  as  the  color-blind  are  to 
select  scarlet  from  purple.  There  is  often  want- 
ing a  development  of  that  brain  matter  in  cer- 
tain things,  as  to  make  the  person  perfectly  in- 
competent to  understand  that  subject;  as  with 
some  persons  who  have  no  taste  or  liking  for 
mathematics,  and  no  teaching  or  explanation 
can  ever  make  them  mathematicians,  and  it  is 
a  waste  of  time  to  try  and  teach  them,  though 
they  may  have  ability  in  other  branches  of  sci- 
ence. So  it  is  with  many  men;  they  have  no 
development  in  those  organs  of  the  brain  that 
tend  to  elevate  them  above  the  cold  atheist. 
They  are  perfectly  destitute  of  the  higher  facul- 
ties that  lift  man  above  the  brute  creation,  as 
these  organs  stand  higher  and  are  nearer  rela- 
ted to  wisdom  than  reason. 

Reason  being  a  faculty  of  our  physical  brain, 
one  which  is  justly  defined  as  that  of  deducing 
inferences  from  premises,  and  being  wholly  de- 
pendent on  the  evidence  of  other  senses,  cannot 
be  a  quality  pertaining  directly  to  our  divine 
spirit.  Hence  all  reasoning  which  implies  dis- 
cussion and  argument  would  be  useless,  as  rea- 
son has  been  substituted  by  man  for  that  of  in- 
tuition or  instinct  in  the  lower  order  of  animals, 
and  has  so  got  control  of  mind  as  to  discard 
anything  that  cannot  be  solved  by  its  test. 
Therefore  it  is  difficult  to  reason  on  religion, 
but  it  must  be  looked  upon  with  blind  faith,  as 
it  will  not  stand  any  of  the  tests  known  to  sci- 
ence, so  we  are  forced  to  accept  it  as  it  is  re- 
vealed to  us  by  those  gifted  with  those  divine 
powers    which    belong   to   prophets,  seers  and 


mediums,  whose  minds  possess  that  quickness 
of  perception,  sight,  hearing  and  feeling  that 
belong  to  the  soul. 

Logic  shows  us  that  as  mind  as  well  as  matter 
had  a  common  origin  it  must  have  attributes  in 
common,  and  as  the  vital  and  divine  spark  in 
man's  material  body  is  the  causation,  so  it  must 
lurk  in  every  subordinate  species.  The  latent 
mentality  which  in  the  lower  kingdoms  is  recog- 
nized as  a  semi-consciousness,  consciousness 
and  instinct,  is  largely  subdued  in  man.  Rea- 
son, the  out-growth  of  the  physical  brain,  de- 
velopes  at  the  expense  of  instinct — the  flicker- 
ing reminiscence  of  a  once  divine  omniscience 
— spirit.  Reason,  the  badge  of  the  sovereignty 
of  physical  man  over  all  other  physical  organ- 
isms, is  often  put  to  shape  by  the  instinct  of  an 
animal.  As  his  brain  ignore  perfect  than  that 
of  any  other  creature,  its  emanations  most 
naturally  produce  the  highest  results  of  mental 
action.  But  reason  avails  only  for  the  consid- 
eration of  mental  things.  It  is  capable  of  help- 
ing its  possessor  to  a  knowledge  of  spirit. 

In  losing  instinct  man  loses  his  intuitional 
powers,  which  are  the  crown  and  ultimatum  of 
instinct.  Reason  is  the  clumsy  weapon  of  sci- 
ence— intuition  the  unerring  guide  of  the  seer. 
Instinct  teaches  plant  and  animal  their  season 
for  the  procreation  of  their  species,  and  guides 
the  dumb  brute  to  find  its  appropriate  remedy 
in  the  hour  of  sickness.  Reason,  the  pride  of 
man,  fails  to  check  the  propensities  of  his  nat- 
ure, and  brooks  no  restraint  upon  the  unlimited 
gratification  of  his  senses.  Far  from  leading 
him  to  be  his  own  physician,  its  subtile  philos- 
ophies lead  him  too  often  to  his  own  destruc- 
tion. Woman  possesses  less  reason  than  man, 
and  relies  more  on  her  intuition.  Her  percep- 
tion is  therefore  quicker  than  man's,  and  she 
lives  a  purer  and  better  life  morally  and  physic- 
ally; therefore  she  makes  the  best  medium,  for 
she  relies  upon  intuition  rather  than  reason. 

Every  human  being  is  born  with  the  rudiment 
of  the  inner  sense  called  intuition,  which  may 
be  developed  into  what  the  Scotch  know  as 
"  second  sight."  All  the  great  philosophers, 
Plotinus,  Porphyry  and  Iamblicus,  employed 
this  faculty,  and  taught  the  doctrine.  "There 
is  a  faculty  of  the  human  mind,"  writes  Iam- 
blichus,  "  which  is  superior  to  all  which  is  born 
or  begotten.     Through  it  we  are  enabled  to  at- 


tain union  with  the  superior  intelligences,  to 
being  transported  beyond  the  scenes  of  this 
world,  and  to  partaking  the  higher  life  and 
peculiar  powers  of  the  heavenly  ones."  All 
great  mentalities  possess  that  power.  It  is  that 
which  lifted  Homer  and  Shakespeare  above  the 
common  herd  of  humanity. 

To  this  inner  sight  or  intuition  the  Jews  owe 
their  Bible  and  the  Christians  their  New  Testa- 
ment. For  what  Moses  and  Jesus  said  and 
wrote  and  gave  to  the  world  was  the  fruit  of 
their  intuition  or  illumination,  that  bears  the 
marks  of  modern  Spiritualism,  for  Christ  was 
a  medium  of  the  highest  order.  He  could 
see,  hear  and  talk  with  spirits.  All  the  spirit 
world  appeared  at  his  command — the  physical, 
intellectual  and  spiritual.  He  could  multiply 
the  loaves  and  fishes,  see  into  the  hearts  of  men 
as  well  as  into  the  water  to  tell  the  fishermen 
where  to  cast  their  nets.  He  could  still  the 
tempest;  cure  the  sick,  lame  and  blind;  and  cast 
out  devils — evil  spirits  that  had  got  possession 
of  men. 

Were  it  not  for  this  intuition,  undying  though 
often  wavering  because  it  is  so  clogged  with 
matter,  man's  life  would  be  a  parody  and  human- 
ity a  fraud.  This  ineradicable  feeling  of  the 
presence  of  something  outside  and  inside  ourselves 
is  one  that  no  dogmatic  contradictions  nor  ex- 
ternal form  of  worship  can  destroy  in  humanity, 
let  scientists  and  clergymen  do  what  they  may. 
Moved  by  such  thoughts  of  the  boundlessness 
and  impersonality  of  the  Deity,  Gautama-Bud- 
dha exclaimed:  "As  the  four  rivers  which  fall 
into  the  Ganges  lose  their  names  as  soon  as  they 
mingle  their  waters  with  the  holy  river,  so  all 
who  believe  in  Buddha  cease  to  "be  Brahmans." 
It  is  the  same  thing  that  forced  the  Psalmist 
to  cry  out,"  "  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  lives." 
It  has  led  men  to  the  stake  and  supported  them 
in  the  most  trying  hours. 

"  The  gods  exist,"  says  Epicurus,  "  but  they 
are  not  what  the  rabble  suppose  them  to  be." 
"  But  neither  the  First  Great  Cause,  nor  its 
emanation — human-immortal  spirit — have  left 
themselves  without  a  witness."  Mesmerism, 
modern  Spiritualism  and  occultism  are  there  to 
attest  the  great  truths  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul.  *  *  *  The  Pythagorean  knowledge 
of  things  and  the  profound  erudition  of  the 
Gnostics,  the  world  and  time-honored  teachings 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


38 


of  the  great  philosophers  of  antiquity,  were  all 
rejected  as  doctrines  of  Antichrist. 

The  last  seven  wise  men  of  the  Orient,  the 
remnant  group  of  the  Neoplatonic  philosophy, 
were  Hermios,  Piscious,  Diogenes,  Eulalius, 
Damoskius,  Simplicius  and  Isidorus,  who  fled 
from  the  fanatical  persecutions  of  Justinian  to 
Persia.  The  reign  of  wisdom  then  closed  on 
Europe  for  over  fifteen  centuries.  The  books 
of  Thoth  (or  Hermes  Trismagistus),  which  con- 
tain within  their  sacred  pages  the  spiritual  and 
physical  history  of  the  creation  and  progress  of 
our  world,  were  left  to  mold  in  oblivion  and 
contempt  for  ages.  But  by  the  untiring  research 
of  Champollion,  Max  Muller  and  others,  the 
Oriental  learning  has  been  resurrected  from  a 
night  of  oblivion.  Though  shrouded  in  mystery 
and  cabalistic  signs,  that  were  intended  ever  to 
keep  the  secret  from  the  knowledge  of  the 
ignorant  rabble. 

"  Magic,  which  is  based  on  the  existence  of  a 
mixed  world  of  forces  placed  within  not  without 
us,  and  with  which  we  can  enter  into  commu- 
nication by  the  use  of  certain  arts  and  practices; 

*  *  an  element  existing  in  nature  unknown 
to  most  men;  which  gets  hold  of  persons  and 
withers  and  breaks  them  down  as  the  fearful 
hurricane  does  a  bulrush.  It  scatters  men  far 
away;  it  strikes  them  in  a  thousand  places  at 
the  same  time,  without  their  perceiving  the  in- 
visible foe  or  being  able  to  protect  themselves. 

*  *  All  this  is  demonstrated;  but  that  this 
element  could  choose  friends  and  select  favor- 
ites, obey  their  thoughts,  answer  to  the  human 
voice,  and  understand  the  meaning  of  traced 
signs — that  is  what  people  cannot  realize  and 
what  their  reason  rejects;  and  that  is  what  I  saw. 
And  I  say  it  here  most  emphatically,  that  tome 
it  is  a  fact  and  a  truth  demonstrated  forever." 
(Du  Potet,  Magie  Devoilee,  pp.  57,  149.) 

This  power  was  well  known  to  the  ancients. 
What  is  now  called  nervous  fluid  or  magnetism 
the  men  of  old  called  occult  ponver,  or  the  po- 
tency of  the  soul  subjection  to  magic;  which 
power  Christ  possessed,  as  he  cast  out  devils 
by  it.  And  it  is  evident  that  he  must  have  got 
initiated  into  the  mysteries  while  in  Egypt,  or 
from  some  of  the  magicians  of  Chaldea,  who 
were  great  adepts  in  the  art,  which  is  now  be- 
ginning to  be  known  and  revered;  and  it  throws 
grea^  light  on   the   miracles  of  the   Bible  and 


explains  away  the  strange  stories  of  witches, 
ghosts,  spooks  and  apparitions,  and  the  mira- 
cles that  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles  "per- 
formed. It  is  evident  from  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament  that  these  magicians  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  birth  of  Christ,  for  they 
were  the  wise  men  from  the  East  that  followed 
the  star  to  Bethlehem. 

Professor  Dominico  Berti,  in  his  life  of  Bruno, 
says:  "In  common  with  the  Alexandrian  Pla- 
tonists  and  the  later  Kabalists,  held  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  a  great  magician  in  the  sense  given 
to  this  appellation  by  Porphyry  and  Cicero, 
who  called  it  the  divina  sapientea  (divine  know- 
ledge); and  Philo  Judaeus,  who  described  the 
Magi  as  the  most  wonderful  inquirers  into  the 
hidden  mysteries  of  natuie,  not  in  the  degrad- 
ing senses  given  now-a-days.  The  Magi  spoken 
of  in  the  Bible  were  holy  men,  who,  setting 
themselves  apart  from  everything  else  on  earth, 
contemplated  the  divine  virtues  and  understood 
the  divine  nature  of  the  gods  and  spirits  the 
more  clearly.  So  they  initiated  others  into  the 
same  mysteries,  which  consist  in  one  holding  an 
interrupted  intercourse  with  those  invisible  be- 
ings during  life.  Magic  in  this  sense  is  a  higher 
order  of  religion,  in  which  the  adept  is  enabled 
to  hold  converse  with  spirits  and  angels,  which 
are  a  higher  order  of  spirits  who  have  progressed 
in  the  spirit  world." 


Mediumship. 

There  are  two  classes  of  mediums.  One 
class — the  high,  the  holy,  the  pure,  the  good — ; 
nay  be  called  properly  mediators,  for  they  come 
between  the  godlike  principle  and  man.  The 
other  class  is  composed  of  those  who  use  this 
power  for  gain,  who  descend  to  the  low  pur- 
pose of  using  this  gift  to  accomplish  bad  and 
wicked  deeds — revenge,  malice,  debauchery, 
lust,  vice  and  crime.  In  either  case  it  is  a  gift 
of  nature,  at  birth  or  subsequently,  modified  so 
that  the  person's  aura  will  attract  those  influ- 
ences that  so  strangely  manifest  themselves  in 
the  different  mediums. 

To  be  a  Mediator  or  good  medium,  it  is 
necessary  for  the  persons  to  be  pure  and  good 
men  and  women,  or  they  will  draw  to  them- 
selves bad  influences,  as  "  like  attracts  like;" 
and  the  good  spirits  gather  around  the  good 
mediums   who  live    pure   lives,  while   the  bad 


39 


mediums  gather  bad  spirits.  So  that  it  all  de- 
pends on  the  medium  as  to  what  kind  of  com- 
munications one  gets.  God-men,  like  Christ, 
Apollonius,  Iamblichus,  Plotinus  and  Porphyry, 
gathered  this  heavenly  nimbus  around  them 
that  sent  forth  wisdom  and  goodness  like  rays 
of  light,  to  teach  men  to  be  better,  to  overcome 
the  temptations  of  the  flesh,  and  to  aspire  to  a 
purer  and  better  life  around  them,  evolved  by 
the  power  of  their  own  pure  souls.  The  best 
and  most  exalted  spirits  were  ever  ready- 
to  assist  them  in  all  that  was  good  and 
noble. 

It  is  asserted  that  Apollonius,  on  account  of 
his  abstemious  life,  could  see  "  the  present  and 
the  future  in  a  clear  mirror;"  while  Christ  could 
read  the  hearts  of  men  and  hold  converse  with 
angels;  which  would  be  the  condition  of  all 
men  if  they  possessed  that  high  and  exalted 
nature.  A  few  in  all  ages  of  the  world  have 
had  that  gift;  but  they  have  all  been  men  and 
women  of  great  purity  of  soul  and  the  most 
abstemious  in  habits.  And  the  great  seventy, 
like  the  fakirs  of  India,  by  their  self-denial  and 
torture  of  the  body,  and  the  mortification  of 
the  flesh,  were  enabled  to  perform  wonders. 

Plotinus  taught  that  there  is  in  the  soul  a  liv- 
ing principle  which  attracts  it  onward  and  up- 
ward to  its  origin  and  center,  the  Eternal  God, 
and  this  accounts  for  the  cause  why  all  admire 
the  pure  and  good  man,  for  in  the  lowest  and 
most  depraved  there  is  a  divine  spark  that  is 
pure;  yet  it  is  so  loaded  down  with  vile  and  bad 
matter  that  it  is  difficult  for  it  to  do  right;  and 
for  that  reason  he  can  comprehend  the  sub- 
lime truth  of  right  and  justice  which  he  so  much 
admires  in  others,  but  has  not  the  moral  cour- 
age to  emulate,  and  is  forced  by  his  base  pas- 
sions, not  willing  to  submit  to  the  self-denial 
and  discipline  that  others  possess,  which  elevates 
them. 

But  when  a  medium  defiles  the  temple  in 
which  dwells  the  spirit  of  the  living  God,  the 
temple  becomes  polluted  by  the  admission  of 
evil  passions,  thoughts  and  desires,  the  medium 
falls  into  the  sphere  of  sorcery.  The  door  is 
opened,  the  pure  spirits  retire  and  the  evil  ones 
rush  in.  They  will  no  more  mingle  in  the 
spirit  world  than  they  will  here.  The  sorcerer, 
like  the  pure  magician,  forms  his  own  aura  and 
subjects  to  his  will  congenial  yet  inferior  spirits, 


who  assist  him  in  his  performances  and  in  car- 
rying cut  his  evil  designs  on  man. 

There  is  a  class  of  weak-minded  men,  women 
and  children  who  give  themselves  up  to  be 
controlled  by  bad  spirits,  who  so  get  control  of 
the  person  as  to  make  them  do  as  they  please. 
Ignoring  their  own  individuality  they  blindly 
follow-  the  promptings  of  these  evil  spirits,  and 
often  allow  them  to  guide  and  so  control  them 
that  they  commit  crimes  and  do  many  wicked 
things,  so  they  have  been  called  possessed  with 
devils,  or  more  properly  speaking,  evil  spirits; 
and  in  certain  cases  they  have  been  obsessed, 
as  in  the  case  of  Mary  Magdalen. 

This  class  of  mediums  is  always  passive, 
whether  beneficent  or  maleficent;  and  happy 
are  the  pure  in  heart,  who  repel  unconsciously 
by  that  very  clearness  of  their  inner  nature  the 
dark,  evil  spirits;  for  verily  they  have  no  other 
weapon  of  defense  but  that  inborn  goodness 
and  purity. 

Mediumship,  as  it  is  often  practiced  now-a- 
days,  is  a  more  undesirable  gift  than  the  robe 
of  Nessus;  and  it  is  what  has  brought  Spiritual- 
ism into  disrepute,  and  caused  it  to  be  shunned 
by  many;  for  when  it  descends  to  that  of  sorce- 
ry, witchcraft,  the  black  arts  and  voodooism, 
it  is  to  be  deprecated,  and  should  be  punished 
with  the  severity  of  the  law.  For  it  brings 
around  bad  influences  that  are  likely  to  mislead 
weak-minded  persons. 

True  and  pure  mediums  must  be  properly 
tested  by  the  communications  given,  and  all 
communications  must  be  closely  scrutinized  by 
the  light  of  reason  and  justice.  As  St.  John 
says  (i  Epistle,  chap,  iv):  "Believe  not  every 
spirit;  but  try  the  spirits,  whether  they  are  of 
God;  many  false  prophets  have  gone  out  into 
the  world."  The  ancient  witches  and  familiar 
spirits  generally  turned  their  gift  to  a  trade;  like 
the  Obeah  woman  of  En-dor,  though  she  may 
have  killed  her  fatted  calf  for  Saul,  accepted 
hire  from  other  visitors. 

In  India,  the  jugglers,  who  by  the  way  are 
less  avaricious  than  many  modern  mediums, 
and  the  Essana,  or  sorcerer  and  serpent-charm- 
ers, of  Asia  and  Africa,  al!  exercise  their  gifts 
for  money.  Not  so  with  the  mediators  and 
hierophants.  **.  Buddha  was  a  mendicant  and 
refused  his  father's  throne."  "The  Son  of  man 
had  not  where  to  lay  his  head."     The   chosen 


40 


apostles  provided  "  neither  gold  nor  silver  nor 
brass  in  their  purses."  Apollonius  gave  one- 
half  of  his  fortune  to  his  relatives,  the  other  half 
to  the  poor.  Iamblichus  and  Plotinus  were 
renowned  for  charity  and  self-denial;  the  fakirs, 
or  holy  mendicants  of  India,  never  take  pay; 
the  Pythagoreans,  Essenes  and  Theraputae,  be- 
lieved their  hands  would  be  denied  by  the  touch 
of  money.  When  the  apostles  were  offered 
money  to  impart  their  spiritual  powers,  refused. 
Peter,  though  a  coward  and  three  times  denied 
his  Savior,  still  indignantly  spurned  the  offer, 
saying,  "Thy  money  perish  with  thee,  because 
thou  hast  thought  that  the  gift  of  God  may  be 
purchased  with  money."  These  men  were  good 
mediums  or  mediators,  guided  merely  by  their 
own  personal  spirit  or  divine  soul,  and  availing 
themselves  of  the  help  of  good  spirits,  so  far  as 
they  directed  them  in  the  right  path,  ever  guided 
by  the  prompting  arising  from  a  pure  heart. 

Apollonius  spurned  the  sorcerers  and  "  com- 
mon soothsayers,"  and  declared  that  it  was  his 
peculiar  abstemious  mode  of  life  which  gave 
gave  him  such  powers.  Professor  Wilder  be- 
lieved with  Iamblichus  in  the  attaining  of  divine 
power,  "which,  overcoming  the  mundane  life, 
rendered  the  individual  an  organ  of  the  Deity." 
Plotinus,  when  asked  to  attend  the  pubUc  wor- 
ship of  the  gods,  said,  "It  is  for  them  (the 
spirits)  to  come  to  me."  That  the  will  of  the 
pure  man  will  command  the  spirits  as  well  as 
other  matter,  and  that  our  souls  can  attain 
communion  with  the  highest  intelligences,  with 
"  natures  loftier  than  itself,"  and  carefully 
drive  away  from  his  theurgical  ceremonies  every 
inferior  spirit  or  bad  demon,  which  he  taught 
his  disciples  to  recognize.  Jesus  declared  man 
the  lord  of  the  sabbath,  and  at  his  command 
the  terrestrial  and  elementary  spirits  fled  from 
their  temporary  abodes — a  power  which  was 
shared  by  Apollonius  and  many  of  the  Broth- 
erhood of  the  Essenee  ot  India  and  Mount 
Carmel. 

The  ancient  Jews  in  the  time  of  Moses,  Da- 
vid and  Samuel,  encouraged  prophecy,  divina- 
tion, astrology  and  soothsaying,  and  maintained 
schools  and  colleges  in  which  the  natural  gifts 
were  strengthened  and  developed;  while  witches 
and  those  who  divined  by  the  spirit  of  Ob  were 
put  to  death.  Even  in  Christ's  time  the  poor 
physical  mediums   who  were  obsessed  by  evil 


spirits  were  driven  to  the  tombs.  It  is  evident 
that  the  ancierts  knew  the  difference  between 
the  good  and  bad  spirits,  and  that  the  latter 
brought  ruin  upon  the  individual  and  disaster 
upon  the  community. 

Physical  manifestations  depend  on  the  medi- 
um being  passive,  and  spirits  never  control  per- 
sons of  a  positive  character,  who  are  determined 
to  resist  all  extraneous  influences.  When  they 
seize  upon  the  weak  and  feeble-minded  they 
often  drive  their  victims  to  vice.  Physical,  me- 
diums are  generally  sickly,  or  inclined  to  some 
abnormal  vice;  and  their  influence  generally  is 
of  a  low  order  of  spirits  or  elements  that  are 
injurious  to  the  medium;  while  the  higher  order 
of  mediums  generally  enjoy  good  health. 

A  medium  is  only  the  vehicle  through  which 
the  spirits  display  their  power.  The  aura  that 
served  them  varies  day  by  day,  and  as  it  would 
appear  from  Prof.  Crookes'  experiments,  even 
hour  by  hour.  It  is  an  external  effect  resulting 
from  interior  causes.  The  medium's  moral 
state  determines  the  kind  of  spirits  that  come; 
and  the  spirits  come  reciprocally,  influence  the 
medium  intellectually,  physically  and  morally. 
The  perfection  of  the  mediumship  is  in  ratio  to 
his  passivity,  and  the  danger  he  incurs  is  in 
equal  degree.  When  he  is  fully  "  developed," 
perfectly  passive,  his  own  astral  spirit  may  be 
benumbed  and  even  crowded  out  of  his  body, 
which  is  then  occupied  by  an  elemental,  or, 
what  is  worse,  by  a  human  fiend  of  the  eighth 
sphere,  who  proceeds  to  use  it  as  his  own  organ- 
ism, and  often  drives  the  medium  unconsciously 
to  commit  some  diabolical  crime,  to  even  sac- 
rifice her  own  child. 

The  adepts  in  occultism  claim  the  power  to 
bring  to  their  aid  the  occult  forces  in  nature, 
which  assists  them,  and  without  that  power 
they  could  do  nothing;  that  they  command 
these  forces  to  help  them,  and  it  is  by  learning 
how  to  control  them  that  they  are  enabled  to 
perform  such  things;  that  the  invisible  intelli- 
gences are  at  their  command,  and  the  secret  is 
to  know  how  to  command  them;  but  that  these 
life-forces  or  principles  can  only  be  used  by 
certain  manipulators.  It  is  different  from  Spir- 
itualism, hence  they  control  the  forces,  while  in 
the  latter  the  forces  control  the  medium.  It 
may  be  possible,  in  the  case  of  occultism,  that 
the  adept  may  be  deceived  and  be  controlled 


41 


by  a  higher  spirit.  And  that  there  are  two 
classes  of  forces,  one  which  is  under  the  control 
of  the  good,  virtuous  and  wise,  which  requires 
great  severity,  the  observance  of  rigid  rules  of 
sobriety,  abstinence,  cleanliness,  purity  of  soul 
and  body,  the  observance  of  fixed  times  for 
meditation  or  prayer,  abstraction,  when  the 
soul  can  go  out  into  the  ether  and  associate 
with  those  who  have  long  since  passed  away; 
that  a  mind  thus  influenced  can  travel  on  the 
wings  of  electricity,  which  is  its  vehicle,  to  the 
remotest  parts  of  the  earth  in  a  few  seconds. 
The  astral  soul  is  a  separate  and  distinct  entity 
of  our  ego,  and  can  roam  far  away  from  the 
body  without  breaking  the  thread  of  life,  that 
time  and  space  do  not  enter  into  its  wander- 
ings, that  it  can  traverse  the  earth  like  an  elec- 
tric spark. 

The  adept  knows  the  nature  of  the  soul — a 
form  composed  of  nervous  fluid  and  atmospheric 
ether — and  knows  how  the  vital  force  can  be 
made  active  or  passive  at  will,  so  long  as  there 
is  no  final  destruction  of  some  necessary  organ. 
Graffarilus  claims  that  every  object  in  nature 
that  is  not  artificial,  when  once  burned  to  ashes, 
still  retains  that  form  in  the  ashes.  Kircher, 
Digby  and  Vallemont  hold  that  forms  of  plants 
could  be  resuscitated  from  their  ashes.  At  a 
meeting  of  naturalists  in  1834,  at  Stuttgart,  a 
receipt  for  producing  such  experiments  was 
found  in  a  work  of  Oetinger.  Ashes  of  burned 
plants  contained  in  vials,  when  heated,  exhibit- 
ed again  their  various  forms.  "  A.  small  obscure 
cloud  gradually  rose  in  the  vial,  took  a  definite 
form  and  presented  to  the  eye  the  flower  or 
plant."  "The  earthly  husk,"  wrote  Oetinger, 
"remains  in  the  retort,  while  the  volatile  es- 
ence  ascends,  like  a  spirit,  perfect  in  form  but 
void  of  substance." 

And  if  the  astral  form  of  a  plant,  when  its 
body  is  dead,  still  lingers  in  its  ashes,  as  has 
been  shown  by  chemists,  by  the  application  of 
heat,  will  skeptics  persist  in  saying  that  the  soul 
of  man,  the  inner  ego,  after  the  death  of  the 
grosser  form,  is  at  once  dissolved  and  is  no 
more  ?  "At  death,"  says  a  philosopher,  "the 
one  body  exudes  from  the'  other  by  osmose 
through  the  brain;  it  is  held  near  its  old  garment 
by  a  double  attraction,  physical  and  spiritual, 
until  the  latter  decomposes.  And  if  the  proper 
conditions  are  given,  the  soul  can  reinhabit  it 


and  resume  the  suspended  life.  It  does  it  in 
sleep;  it  does  it  more  thoroughly  in  trance. 
Most  surprisingly  at  the  command  and  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Heremetic  adept,  Iamblichus 
declared  that  a  person  endowed  with  such  re- 
suscitating power  is  'full  of  God.'  All  the 
subordinate  spirits  of  the  upper  spheres  are  at 
his  command,  for  he  is  no  longer  a  mortal,  but 
himself  a  god.  In  his  Epistle  to  the  Corinth- 
ians, Paul  remarks  that  "the  spirits  of  the  proph- 
ets are  subject  to  the  prophets." 

"  If  the  molecules  of  the  cadaver  are  imbued 
with  the  physical  and  chemical  forces  of  the 
living  organism,  what  is  to  prevent  them  from 
being  again  set  in  motion,  provided  we  know 
the  nature  of  the  vital  force  and  how  to  com- 
mand it  ?  The  materialist  can  certainly  offer 
no  objection,  for  with  him  it  is  no  question  of 
reinfusing  a  soul.  For  him  the  soul  has  no  ex- 
istence, and  the  human  body  may  be  regarded 
simply  as  a  vital  engine,  a  locomotive  which 
will  start  upon  the  application  of  heat  and  force 
and  stop  when  they  are  withdrawn.  To  the 
theologian  the  case  offers  greater  difficulties, 
for,  in  his  view,  death  cuts  asunder  the  tie  that 
binds  soul  and  body,  and  the  one  can  no  more 
be  returned  into  the  other  without  a  miracle 
than  the  born  infant  can  be  compelled  to  resume 
its  fcetal  life." 

But  the  Heremetic  philosophers  stand  be- 
tween these  two  irreconcilable  antagonists,  and 
are  masters  of  the  situation.  Spirit  controls  the 
body.  The  life  that  animates  the  body,  wheth- 
er voluntarily  or  involuntarily,  as  you  term  it, 
is  in  reality  the  result  of  the  existing  spirit. 
Every  molecule,  every  susceptible  atom,  each 
substance  attracted  in  our  bodies,  is  under  the 
direct  control  of  our  spiritual  natures.  Do  not 
mistake  this  for  will;  for  this  is  not  under  the 
control  of  our  volition.  Do  not  misiake  it  for 
intellect.  The  intellect  is  subtile  in  its  opera 
tions;  but  the  spiritual  nature  is  still  more  sub- 
tile, and  that  it  is  which  voluntarily  or  invol- 
untarily controls  every  atom  of  our  physical 
existence.  It  attracts  to  us  each  substance  that 
is  necessary  to  make  up  our  bodies,  rejecting 
such  as  are  not  consistent  with  the  form  thereof, 
and  determines  the  nature  of  our  physical  bod- 
ies in  a  great  degree. 

Every  embodied  mind  possesses  in  embryo 
every  germ  and  power  that  is  possessed  by  the 


42 


disembodied  mind,  and  the  disembodied  mind 
possesses  every  power  that  is  possessed  by  the 
embodied  mind,  with  this  difference,  they  have 
a  physical  organixation  of  their  own,  like  our- 
selves, and,  are  obliged  to  act  upon  physical 
organisms  here,  in  order  to  work  out  the  mani- 
festations of  their  presence  and  intelligence. 
They  have  the  advantage  of  possessing  greater 
elasticity  of  will,  of  acting  upon  more  minute 
particles  of  matter-  than  you  can  govern, 
because  your  actions,  in  connection  with  mat- 
ter, must  be  directed  exclusively  by  the  motions 
of  your  physical  body.  The  spirit,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  a  more  subtle  will,  and,  being 
constrained  by  no  physical  body,  can  act  upon 
more  nearly  ultimated  particles  of  matter,  and 
thereby  produce  effects  which  defy  physical 
science,  and  which  scientific  men  fail  to  under- 
stand, for  they  do  not  understand  the  laws  by 
which  they  exist;  they  cannot  explain  by  what 
power  the  muscles  are  contracted,  by  which 
the  hand  is  moved,  and  as  to  how  a  table  can 
be  moved  by  an  invisible  force,  is  impossible — 
yet  it  is  the  same  hidden  force,  the  same  will- 
power of  the  spirit  that  accomplishes  both; 
still,  there  has  been  a  thought  conveyed  over 
the  nerves  that  sets  the  muscles  to  work,  and 
the  brain  is  moved  by  the  spirit  that  has  set  it 
to  work  to  send  out  the  thought  that  travels 
over  the  nerves  that  causes  the  muscles  to 
move. 

The  spirits  see  the  aura  around  physical  bod- 
ies that  you  do  not.  They  see  the  action  of 
the  nervous  fluids,  and  know  from  its  sight 
that  these  nervous  fluids  are  composed  of  in- 
finitesimal globules,  each  one  corresponding  to 
its  particular  function,  which  the  spirit  employs 
when  it  raps  on  the  table,  or  produces  vibra- 
tions of  the  atmosphere.  The  infinitesimal 
molecules  that  are  thus  employed  might  be 
called  vacuums;  and  in  these  minute  globules 
of  atmosphere  or  aura  resides  the  power,  not 
only  of  communications,  but  to  lift  tables  ard 
project  bodies  through  the  atmosphere.  And 
it  is  owing  to  this  atmosphere  or  aura  that  sur- 
rounds the  person  or  thing  that  enables  the 
spirit  to  communicate  to  mortal  beings. 


Materialization. 
The  materialization  of  a  spirit  is  only  gather- 
ing around  it  the  atoms  that  are  in  the  aura  and 


atmosphere  around  the  medium,  from  whom  it 
draws  the  material  to  render  its  form  visible  to 
embodied  souls  or  living  human  beings.  The 
spirit  having  the  form  and  the  intelligence  is 
soon  able,  under  proper  conditions,  to  make 
itself  visible.  As  the  red  and  yellow  rays  are 
strong  and  antagonistic  they  have  a  tendency  to 
scatter  the  atoms  of  matter,  so  materialization 
has  to  be  done  in  the  dark  or  in  blue  rays  of 
light  where  all  other  rays  but  the  blue  are  ex- 
cluded. So  when  spirits  wish  to  materialize 
they  draw  from  the  air,  which  is  the  great  res- 
ervoir of  inorganic  matter,  such  material  as 
light  will  not  show  in  a  clear  sun  light  but  in 
the  dark  it  gives  off  a  pale  light.  When  all  the 
rays  of  light  are  reflected  the  object  is  white, 
when  all  are  absorbed  the  object  is  black. 

Myrids  of  animals  exist  that  can  not  be  seen 
with  the  naked  eye  because  they  are  too  small 
or  have  not  the  coloring  matter  to  reflect  the 
rays  of  light. 

The  body  generates  an  aura  through  the 
pores  of  the  skin  by  a  process  of  endosmose  ac- 
tion, is  then  thrown  off  by  an  exosmose  action 
in  the  form  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  which  is  poi- 
sonous if  again  returned  to  the  human  system, 
but  under  the  manifestations  of  the  spirit  there 
is,  accompanying  this  carbonic  acid  gas,  a  cer- 
tain force  or  power,  whieh,  for  the  lack  of  a 
better  term,  we  call  nerve-aura.  It  is  a  similar 
force  that  vibrates  along  the  nervous  system  of 
the  human  body,  and  it  is  upon  this  substance 
that  the  spirit  acts  to  produce  a  sound.  Nitro- 
gen is  the  most  subtle  of  all  elemental  proper- 
ties of  the  atmosphere.  Carbonic  acid  gas, 
mingled  with  nitrogen  in  atomic  proportions, 
becomes  the  material  whereby  spirit-lights  and 
vibrations  are  produced,  by  the  aid  of  electric- 
ity. These  vibrations  occur  in  direct  connec- 
tion with  certain  conditions  known  to  the  spirits 
but  which  is  unknown  to  science,  because  it  has 
no  instruments  fine  enough  to  make  an  analysis 
of  these  powers;  and  the  best  physical  manifest- 
ations are  when  the  medium  is  confined  in  a 
room  where  the  air  is  foul  with  carbonic  acid 
gas,  though  it  may  be  injurious  to  the  health  of 
those  living  in  the  body;  but  out  of  this  foul  air 
the  spirits  can  find  the  best  materializing  mat- 
ter to  build  up  visible  forms;  and  it  has  been 
discovered  by  photographing  that  blue  and 
violet  light  is  the   best  for  taking  pictures,  as  it 


43 


is  the  most  harmonious  and  slowest,  as  it  fills 
all  space  and  gives  color  to  the  sky  and  a  fine 
effect  on  the  picture,  and  has  none  of  the  an- 
tagonistic properties  of  the  red  and  yellow  rays 
which  impede  the  action  of  the  spirits;  so  all  se- 
ances should  be  held  in  rooms  lit  up  by  blue 
or  violet  rays  of  light.  The  artist  requires  the 
same  kind  of  rays  so  that  it  will  fix  the  picture 
on  the  plate,  from  which  he  is  able,  by  chemic- 
als, to  transfer  to  another.  And  all  the  spirit 
requires  is  the  proper  conditions  and  similar 
lights  to  form  a  body  that  is  visible  to  the 
natural  eye.  The  picture  is  there  and  the  spirit 
is  there;  but  it  requires  the  proper  materials  to 
bring  them  out,  so  that  they  become  visible  to 
the  mortal  eye.  And  in  this  way  spiritual  pict- 
ures are  taken,  as  well  as  those  of  living  per- 
sons. And  if  pictures  can  be  taken  by  one 
kind  of  light  and  not  another,  why  not  materi- 
alization be  effected  likewise? 

All  light  has  a  dematerializing  effect.  Spirits 
find  it  much  easier  to  form  in  the  dark,  as  all 
plating  and  impressions  of  the  photographer 
have  first  to  be  set  in  the  dark.  The  picture 
is  given  by  the  light  shaded  with  blue  screens 
and  skylight;  and,  as  the  photographer  has  to 
use  his  dark  cabinet  to  set  the  image  in  the 
glass,  so  has  the  medium  to  use  the  dark  cabi- 
net  to  enable  the  spirit  chemist  to  build  up  and 
plate  anew  the  spirit  with  visible  matter  before 
it  can  appear  in  the  light. 

The  spirit,  having  once  lived  in  the  flesh, 
has  learned  the  laws  of  the  flesh,  and  knows 
how  to  control  even  the  organisms  of  other  and 
living  bodies.  The  spirit  is  the  life  principle  of 
the  body.  It  is  what  steam  is  to  the  engine — 
which  is  dead  matter;  but,  as  soon  as  the  steam 
is  turned  on  the  piston  moves  backward  and 
forward,  giving  life  to  the  whole:  so,  when  the 
spirit  leaves  the  body,  it  is  cold,  dead  matter; 
but  when  the  spirit  enters,  it  at  once  gives  life 
and  animation.  The  spirit  and  the  body  are 
nucleus  around  which  all  matter  clings,  so  that 
when  a  spirit  wishes  to  materialize  it  has  but 
little  to  do  but  draw  the  required  matter  from 
others  and  the  air,  and  in  that  way  it  makes 
itself  a  visible  body. 

The  human  body  is  always  giving  off  atoms 
of  matter  through  the  pores  of  the  skin  so  that 
every  seven  years,  and  some  say,  every  nine 
months,  the  whole  of  the  body  has  passed  away 


and  has  been  replaced  by  new  matter.  "We 
live,"  says  Herbert  Spencer,  "  by  constantly 
dieing."  These  atoms  given  from  the  body, 
especially  from  the  medium's,  is  used  by  the 
spirits,  who  understand  their  chemical  nature, 
and  recompose  them  around  the  spirit  which  is 
a  perfect  form  to  build  upon.  Like  copper  and 
zinc,  under  a  strong  current  power  or  a  circle 
of  spirits,  which  induces  them  to  yield  those 
atoms,  which  the  spirit  chemist  employs  to  ma- 
terialize forms  by  the  use  of  elements  in  the  air 
which  are  as  simple  and  well  understood  by  the 
spirits  as  electrotyping  is  by  mortals,  so  that  the 
spirit  can  accomplish  in  a  few  minutes  what  in 
the  flesh  requires  years  to  build  up,  the  differ- 
ence being  one  of  time  and  of  permanency. 
It  is  a  process  of  galvanizing  over  the  spiritual 
body  with  visible  matter,  that  enables  them  to 
show  themselves  to  us  in  the  flesh.  As  the 
spiritual  body  is  invisible  to  the  natural  sight, 
but  can  be  seen  only  by  the  clairvoyant,  who 
sees  with  the  vision  of  the  soul,  to  enable  the 
spirit  to  be  seen  by  the  mortal  eye  it  must  clothe 
itself  in  material  matter  that  reflects  light. 

The  hand  being  full  of  nerves  more  readily 
materializes  than  any  other  part  of  the  body, 
and  this  accounts  for  the  many  hands  often 
seen  at  a  seance,  and  is  generally  the  first  part 
of  the  bocby  that  materializes. 

Materialization  is  the  highest  realization  of 
modern  Spiritualism.  It  brings  the  living  face 
to  face  with  those  who  were  supposed  to  be 
dead.  They  tell  us  that  they  still  live,  and 
have  only  shed  off  the  outward  husk,  the  mor- 
tal body.  It  is  the  strongest  evidence  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  The  body  is  only  one  of 
the  stages  of  development  of  the  embryotic  con- 
ditions of  the  soul,  which  had  passed  through  the 
lower  forms  of  life  during  gestation,  that,  like 
the  eagle  and  the  butterfly,  has  broken  through 
the  shell  of  mortality  and  mounts  on  wings  into 
the  sky,  no  longer  feeding  on  the  gross  things 
of  the  earth,  but  draws  its  life  and  vitality  from 
the  ether. 

The  same  knowledge  and  control  of  occult 
forces,  including  the  vital  forces  which  enable 
a  fakir  temporarily  to  leave  and  then  re-enter 
his  body.  Jesus,  Apollonius  and  Elijah  were 
able  to  recall  their  several  subjects  to  life;  made 
it  possible  for  the  ancient  hierophants  to  ani- 
mate statues  and  cause  them  to  act  and  speak. 


44 


It  is  the  same  knowledge  and  power  which 
made  it  possible  for  Paracelsus  to  create  his  hu- 
munculi;  for  Aaron  to  change  his  rod  into  a  ser- 
pent and  a  budding  branch;  for  Moses  to  cover 
Egypt  with  frogs  and  other  pests,  and  the  same 
Egyptian  theurgist  of  our  day  to  vivify  his  pig- 
my mandragora,  which  has  physical  life  but  no 
soul.  It  is  no  more  wonderful  that  upon  present- 
ing the  necessary  conditions  Moses  should  call 
into  life  large  reptiles  and  insects  than  that,  un- 
der like  favoring  conditions,  the  physical  scien- 
tists should  call  out  the  small  ones  which  he 
names  bacteria. 

Nearly  all  the  forms  of  phenomena  of  the  an- 
cients wonder-workers,  recorded  in  sacred  and 
profane  histories,  are  produced  now  by  spiritu- 
al mediums.  .  I  have  seen  bodies  moved,  hang 
suspended  in  the  mid  air;  instruments  play  by 
laying  in  the  hands  of  the  medium ;  have  felt 
the  weight  of  invisible  hands;  heard  voices  in 
the  air  over  my  head;  musical  instruments  flying 
around  in  the  room;  flowers  fresh  with  the  dew 
on  them,  handed  out  of  a  cabinet  in  a  well  lit 
room;  have  had  deceased  friends  and  relatives 
described  to  me,  so  perfect,  and  their  names 
given  so  that  there  could  be  no  mistake;  I  have 
been  tilted  out  of  a  chair  by  the  touch  of  the 
hand  of  a  little  cousin;  I  have  seen  a  dozen 
ghosts  or  spirits  walk  out  of  a  room,  that  I  had 
sealed  up;  I  have  seen  them  in  the  broad  day- 
light rise  up,  come  to  me,  and  have  felt  their 
pulse — sometimes  they  had  pulse  and  at  other 
times  they  had  none;  I  have  conversed  with 
them,  they  told  me  who  they  were  and  where 
they  had  departed  this  life,  but  they  would  not 
admit  that  they  were  dead,  but  said  they  had 
passed  to  a  higher  life. 

I  have  had  communications  from  my  dear 
departed  friends,  written  on  a  slate,  held  in  my 
own  hand  under  the  table,  the  medium  only 
touching  it.  The  signature  of  my  mother  was 
so  perfect  that,  had  I  not  known  she  was  dead, 
I  would  have  been  willing  to  swear  to  its  genu- 
ineness in  a  court  of  justice. 

I  once  called  upon  Dr.  Slade,  the  celebrated 
medium,  to  see  if  I  could  get  some  new  light, 
and  on  reading  an  article  to  him  on  "  Evolu- 
tion," it  met  the  approbation  of  a  spirit  present 
expressed  by  rapping  on  the  table;  but,  when  I 
read  where  Darwin  says,  "Young  birds  do  not 
make  as  good   nests   as   old   ones,"   it  rapped 


"  no,"  and  so  it  differed  with  him  on  that  sub- 
ject. Every  now  and  then  it  would  pat  me  on 
the  thighs,  which  were  under  the  table,  approv- 
ing the  article.  It  was  in  broad  daylight,  and  I 
am  certain  it  was  not  done  by  any  visible  per- 
son, as  the  medium  was  the  only  person  in  the 
room.  He  then  placed  one  hand  in  mine  on 
the  table,  and  took  a  slate,  wiped  it  clean, 
placed  a  piece  of  pencil  on  it,  and  took  another 
slate  and  laid  it  over  it,  then  held  the  two  slates 
up  to  the  side  of  my  ear.  I  could  hear  the 
pencil  scratching  like  it  was  writing;  soon  it 
gave  three  taps,  and  then  he  opened  the  slate, 
and  one  whole  side  was  written  over  in  a  plain, 
legible  manner.  The  following  is  a  correct 
copy: 

Dear  Sir:  Your  subject  is  one  that  is  little 
understood.  Man  has  an  intellectual  nature, 
and  also  intuition,  so  have  animals;  but,  un- 
less these  two  are  wedded,  he  is  not  a  success- 
ful man.  Often  intellect  has  taken  on  the  aid  of 
intuition;  and,  again,  intuition  has  controlled 
man  with  the  guardiance  of  intellect.  Some 
men  fail  when  animals  do  not,  he  by  throwing 
his  intuition  aside  and  glories  in  his  intellect, 
and  he  often  makes  great  mistakes  in  life.  An- 
imals have  no  pride  in  intellect,  and  trust  more 
to  intuition  and  do  not  fail. 

A.  VV.  Slade. 

The  signature  was  that  of  his  deceased  wife. 

The  wonderful  test  given  by  Mr.  Slade  con- 
vinced the  honest  German  scientist,  Zollner, 
that  there  were  forces  unknown  to  the  scientist, 
which  he  called  transcendental  physics. 

Mr.  Zollner,  professor  of  physical  astronomy 
at  the  University  of  Leipsic,  one  of  the  most 
renowned  schools  of  learning  in  Europe,  made 
many  tests  in  a  scientific  way  in  broad  day- 
light, in  the  presence  of  other  professors,  with 
the  physical  manifestations  of  Henry  Slade, 
forced  him  to  the  conclusion  that  these  wonder- 
ful manifestations  could  not  be  explained  by  the 
ordinary  laws  of  physics.  That  the  tying  of 
knots  in  a  string,  with  both  ends  fastened  and 
sealed  and  held  in  his  and  Slade's  hands  on  the 
table,  while  the  other  part  of  the  string  hung 
under  the  table.  Communications  were  written 
on  a  book  slate  which  they  had  purchased,  and 
had  been  sealed  up  by  them.  They  heard  the 
slate-pencil  scratching  like  a    thing  of  life  be- 


45 


tween  the  slates.  After  giving  three  raps  they 
removed  the  seals,  opened  the  slate  and  both 
sides  were  written  all  over  and  signed.  Fear- 
ing there  might  be  something  wrong  they  then 
prepared  other  slates  of  a  similar  kind,  and 
when  Mr.  Slade  put  his  hands  on  them,  the  pencil 
began  to  scratch,  and  when  it  rapped  three 
times  they  took  the  same  slates  and  carried  them 
home  and  opened  them,  and  there  were  other 
messages  written  to  them. 

Wooden  rings  tied  together  with  a  string  and 
placed  under  the  table  were  carried  and  placed 
around  the  upright  part  of  the  candle-stand, 
which  no  mortal  could  do  without  taking  off 
the  tops  of  the  stand. 

Coin  was  passed  down  through  the  table  and 
fell  on  the  slate,  while  the  pencil  passed  up  and 
entered  into  the  box  in  which  the  money  had 
been  placed  and  sealed  up.  A  candle-stand 
rose  up  and  disappeared,  presently  it  descended 
from  the  ceiling  and  rested  upon  the  table 
around  which  they  weie  sitting. 

A  bowl  of  flour  was  placed  on  the  floor  un- 
der the  table  and  they  felt  hands  touching  them 
on  their  legs.  On  inspection  there  were  the 
marks  of  hand  prints  in  the  bowl  of  flour  and 
the  same  finger  marks  on  their  pants.  They 
were  certain  that  Mr.  Slade  did  not  do  it,  as 
his  hands  rested  on  the  table  all  the  time,  and 
there  was  no  flour  in  them. 

That  hand  and  foot  prints  on  prepared  paper 
were  made  through  the  slate,  though  it  was 
locked  up  in  a  box.  That  a  screen  that  was 
made  ot  strong  wood  that  would  require  a  dy- 
namic force  of  two  hundred  and  ninety-eight 
hundred  weight,  or  more  than  the  combined 
strength  of  three  hundred  giants  to  rupture,  was 
torn  apart  by  an  invisible  power.  That  lights 
appeared  and  disappeared;  that  it  rained  on 
them  and  wet  their  clothes  in  the  room;  and 
many  other  strange  things  that  could  not  be  ex- 
plained by  any  known  law  of  physics.  These 
tests  were  through  and  beyond  any  trickery. 
They  called  in  the  king's  juggler  to  assist  them, 
and  he  was  unable  to  detect  any  fraud  or  trick, 
or  make  any  explanation  how  it  was  done. 

All  of  which  goes  to  prove  the  apparent  pen- 
etration of  matter,  and  also  of  the  existence  of 
the  fourth  dimension,  by  which  this  invisible 
power  can  produce  these  strange  phenomena. 
So  these  learned  savans  of  the  renowned  school 


of  Leipsic  were  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  was  an  intelligent  power  that  could  do 
those  things  which  were  beyond  their  knowl- 
edge of  physical  forces.  That  there  were  such 
things  in  existence  that  did  not  come  within 
the  known  laws  of  length,  breadth  and  thick- 
ness, which  is  all  that  we  can  possibly  know  of 
matter,  and  in  these  dimensions  it  includes  all 
its  possibilities.  But  in  the  fourth  dimension, 
says  Zollner,  "  we  have  another  aspect  of  the 
case;  one  in  which  our  system  of  geometry  is 
at  fault,  and  its  axioms  cease  to  apply  there; 
matter  is  subjected  to  transcendental  laws  and 
conditions  are  apparently  reversed." 

Professor  Zollner,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  William 
Crookes,  who  had  also  investigated  the  phe- 
nomena of  Spiritualism,  said:  "By  a  strange 
conjunction  our  scientific  endeavors  have  met 
in  the  same  field  of  light  and  of  a  new  class  of 
physical  phenomena,  which  proclaim  to  the 
astonished  mankind,  with  assurance  no  longer 
doubtful,  the  existence  of  another  material  and 
intelligent  world.  As  two  solitary  wanderers 
on  high  mountains  joyfully  greet  one  another  at 
their  encounter,  when  passing  storm  and  clouds 
veil  the  summit  to  which  they  aspire,  so  I 
rejoice  to  have  met  you,  undismayed  cham- 
pion, upon  this  new  province  of  science.  To 
you,  also,  ingratitude  and  scorn  have  been 
abundantly  dealt  out  by  the  blind  representa- 
tives of  modern  science  and  by  the  multitude 
befooled  through  their  erroneous  teachings. 
May  you  be  consoled  by  the  consciousness 
that  the  undying  splendor  with  which  the  names 
of  a  Newton  and  a  Faraday  have  illustrated  the 
history  of  English  people  can  be  obscured  by- 
nothing;  not  even  by  the  political  decline  of 
this  great  nation;  even  so  will  your  name  sur- 
vive in  the  history  of  culture,  adding  a  new  or- 
nament to  those  with  which  the  English  nation 
has  endowed  the  human  race."  (Transcenden- 
tal Physics,  page  27.) 

The  late  exhibitions  of  physical  force  by 
Miss  Lulu  Hurst  throughout  the  United  States, 
is  enough  to  convince  all  fair-minded  people 
that  there  is  an  invisible  force,  produced  by  the 
laying  of  her  hands  upon  a  chair  that  defies 
the  strength  of  a  dozen  strong  men.  It  flung 
men  around  as  though  they  were  feathers.  I 
found  it  impossible  to  hold  an  umbrella  over 
mv  head  while  she  had  but  one  finger  touching 


4ti 


the  handle.  Her  manager  announced  that  she 
disclaimed  any  knowledge  of  the  power  that 
produced  the  force.  Her  father  informed  me 
that  the  power  was  spiritual  force,  as  he  had 
been  so  informed  by  the  spirits,  but  that  it  was 
not  policy  to  so  announce  it  from  the  stage, 
owing  to  the  credulity  of  a  great  many  people 
who  are  prejudiced  against  the  spiritualistic 
theory.  I  was  satisfied  as  soon  as  I  took  hold 
of  the  umbrella  that  it  was  the  same  force  that 
could  enable  my  little  cousin  to  hurl  me  from 
a  chair  twenty-five  years  ago.  And  here  let  me 
state,  that  not  long  since  I  saw  the  same  cousin 
— now  married  and  the  mother  of  several  child- 
ren— and  she  informed  me  that  she  had  long 
since  lost  that  power. 

I  know  of  several  other  mediums  who  have 
lost  the  power  to  produce  manifestations,  hav- 
ing been  pursuaded  by  the  church  that  it  was 
the  work  of  the  devil.  My  little  cousin,  Lillie 
Dobbins,  was  a  strong  physical  medium,  and 
could  make  a  dining-room  table  follow  her 
around  like  a  dog  by  touching  it  with  the  tip  of 
her  finger,  and  make  it  stand  on  one  leg  and 
flap  the  folding  leaves,  like  the  wings  of  a 
bird.  I  asked  what  spirit  it  was  moving  the 
table  ?  It  called  for  the  alphabet,  and  as  the 
letters  were  repeated,  the  name  of  Samson  was 
rapped.  I  then  asked  it  to  turn  the  house  over. 
It  replied,  in  the  same  way,  that  it  might  kill 
us.  I  then  said,  "  Throw  me  out  of  the  chair." 
and  immediately  I  felt  myself  moved  by  an  in- 
visible force,  that  hurled  me  out  without  an  ef- 
fort. 

I  had  another  cousin,  Carrie  Dameron,  who 
was  a  rapping  medium,  and  I  tested  her  in  every 
way  I  could,  to  solve  the  mystery.  It  invaria- 
bly rapped  out  the  name  of  departed  relative 
or  friend,  who  would  not  admit  that  they  were 
dead,  but  only  passed  to  a  higher  state  of  ex- 
istence. 

One  of  the  most  peculiar  tests  I  had  occurred 
one  night,  when  the  negro  boy,  who  made  fires 
in  the  dwelling,  being  anxious  to  see  the  mani- 
festations, had  crawled  under  the  bed,  after 
making  the  fire,  and  unknown  to  any  of  us; 
but  the  fact  of  his  presence  was  revealed  by 
the  attendant  spirit  rapping  out  the  words, 
"Dick  is  under  the  bed."  The  poor  boy 
came  out  affrighted,  saying,  "  That  is  the  devil, 
sure,  for  no  one  know'd  I  was  dar." 


Here  let  me  state  that  that  dear  cousin  has 
long  since  passed  to  the  spirit  land;  and  she 
often  comes  to  me  and  gives  me  assurance  that 
what  transpired  while  living  is  more  than  real, 
and  that  spiritualism  is  true. 

It  is  evident  that  this  is  a  force  that  has  intel- 
ligence; that  can  come  when  desired  and  depart 
when  not  wanted,  and  is  capable  of  com- 
municating with  man  through  raps,  tipping 
of  tables,  independent  slate  writing  and  in 
other  ways.  It  can  give  names  and  incidents, 
of  which  no  person  present  has  any  thought  or 
knowledge.  While  some  of  these  com- 
munications may  be  erroneous,  on  the  whole 
they  are  generally  truthful;  but  it  is  not  safe  to 
place  too  much  reliance  in  their  knowledge  of 
the  future,  for  they,  like  mortals,  are  fallible, 
and  they  make  many  statements  that  are  false, 
for  they  have  only  advanced  intelligence,  and 
many  are  not  so  wise  as  those  living  in  the 
flesh;  and  it  is  hard  to  say  who  is  at  the  other 
end  communicating.  It  may  be  the  spirit's 
true  name  or  it  may  be  some  mischievous  boy's 
spirit  or  some  lying  spirit  imposing  on  human- 
ity. They  are  there  as  they  were  here — no 
wiser,  no  better;  as  they  depart  this  life,  so  they 
wake  up  over  there  in  the  spirit  land. 

Saint  Paul  said:  "We  must  try  the  spirits 
before  we  believe  them."  So  nothing  should 
be  taken  for  granted,  until  it  shall  have  been 
thoroughly  tested;  even  then  it  must  be  taken 
with  a  great  deal  of  allowance,  for  we  little  un- 
derstand this  mode  of  communicating.  Even 
the  telegrapher  requires  us  to  repeat  the  mes- 
sage before  he  will  stand  responsible  for  the 
correctness  of  its  transfer. 

This  mode  of  communication,  like  telegraph- 
ing, requires  time  to  investigate  and  under- 
stand. We  are  not  able  to  go  over  to  the  other 
side  to  compare  notes  and  then  return.  We 
have  to  take  it  for  granted  that  what  words  they 
send  back  are  correct;  and,  so  far,  these  state- 
ments have  been  of  so  confused  and  uncertain 
a  nature  that  many  have  been  led  to  the  belief 
that  it  must  be  something  other  than  the  spirit 
of  our  departed  friends;  at  best  it  is  hard  for  us 
to  understand  how  anything,  or  any  intelligence 
can  exist  without  a  physical  body,  capable  of 
making  itself  manifest  to  our  five  senses;  yet, 
we  hear  the  raps  and  the  scratching  of  the  pen- 
cil, but  wc  cannot  see  the  power  that  moves  it. 


47 


There  are  so  many  frauds  and  deceptions  in 
the  world  that  it  becomes  all  to  be  very  careful 
that  they  are  not  imposed  upon.  It  may  be 
a  question  whether  it  is  best  for  ignorant  masses 
of  humanity  to  investigate  it,  as  they  are  liable 
to  be  misled  and  placed  under  the  control  of 
evil  rather  than  good  influences,  but  as  man- 
kind grow  wiser  and  better  they  will  learn  to 
look  upon  it  as  their  future  existence,  and  will 
prepare  and  fit  themselves  for  that  advanced 
stage  of  development.  It  will  rob  the  grave 
of  its  terrors  and  make  death  only  the  gateway 
to  a  higher  and  better  existence  in  the  vast  un- 
seen universe  that  encompasses  us.     When  it 


is  understood  that  this  planet  is  only  a  germi- 
nating world,  and  that  our  future  happiness  de- 
pends on  how  we  live  here,  and  that  it  has 
much  to  do  in  fitting  us  for  the  life  to  come, 
that  is  eternal;  that  we  can  not  escape  the 
burden  of  our  own  sins  or  shift  them  on  the 
shoulders  of  another,  it  will  make  us  more  care- 
ful how  we  act  and  treat  our  fellow-man,  for 
we  are  all  brothers  on  the  same  road  to  the 
spirit  land,  where  we  will  have  to  make  repara- 
tion for  all  the  wrongs  that  we  have  done  to 
each  other.  There  the  law  of  compensation 
and  restoration  is  beyond  a  technicality  or 
doubt  of  court  or  jury. 


CHAPTER  V. 


INSPIRATION  AND  INSPIRED  MEN,  SAVIORS,  MEDIATORS  AND  MEDIUMS. 


Inspiration  is  the  natural  influx  of  the  divine 
truth  into  the  human  soul,  and  its  degree  is 
determined  by  character  and  capacity,  and 
it  is  not  confined  to  the  teachings  of  any  reli- 
gious truth.  Even  the  old  Testament  teaches 
that  certain  men  were  inspired  of  God  to  work 
in  linen  and  brass  and  cedar  and  gold.  Shake- 
speare, Angelo,  Socrates  and  Epicteus  have 
just  as  good  a  claim  to  be  inspired  of  God  as 
any  of  the  Jewish  prophets  or  writers  in  the  old 
or  new  Testament. 

All  light  is  from  the  sun,  whether  it  shines 
from  moon  or  planet;  whether  it  be  reflected 
by  brook  or  mirror;  whether  it  be  a  stray,  bro- 
ken beam  to  prison-cell;  whether  it  flare  in  the 
gaslight  or  glow  in  the  coal  of  our  grate,  all 
light  is  first  or  last  just  so  much  sunlight;  so  all 
truth,  of  whatsoever  kind  or  degree,  is  from 
God. 

"  Pure  inspiration  is  confined  to  no  particu- 
lar person,  age  or  nation;  it  is  as  common  and 
universal  as  the  spirit  of  God.  Everything  that 
possesses  life,  no  matter  in  what  kingdom  or 
stage  of  development,  is  to  the  same  degree 
the  recipient,  exponent,  prophet  and  beneficiary 
of  the  universal  spirit  of  the  Supreme  Being. 
Everything  that  moves  anywhere  in  the  illimita- 
ble territory  of  Nature  sustains  a  relation  more 
or  less  intimate  to  the  spirit  which  animates  the 
world.  Every  creature  enjoys  a  living  commu- 
nion with  the  all-animating  principle;  and  the 
relations  which  subsist  between  the  little  worm 
and  the  creation  of  worlds  are  just  as  intimate 
in  principle  as  those  enjoyed  by  man.  Hence, 
all  things  receive  the  spirit  of  God  and  bathe 
in  it,  and  express  it  in  the  external  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  their  capacity  and  absolute  require- 
ments. The  human  soul  is  a  far  richer  soil  for 
the  growth  and  nurture  of  heavenly  sentiments 


than  any  ground  around  Jerusalem,  which  may 
have  been  blessed  and  sanctified  by  the  tread 
of  Christ  and  the  prophets." 

Man's  eternal  organism  is  closely  joined  to 
the  material  world,  but  far  more  closely  is  his 
spiritual  nature  joined  to  that  principle  which 
enlivens  and  energizes  the  universal  whole. 
There  is  nothing  between  man  and  the  bending 
heavens.  He  can  bare  his  head  beneath  the 
dome  of  the  living  temple,  and  there  is  no  ob- 
struction intervening  which  can  shut  him  from 
a  contemplation  of  the  gorgeous  creation,  and 
if  he  will  but  bare  his  spirit  by  removing 
his  pride,  selfishness,  ignorance  and  seusuality, 
which  circumscribe  and  entomb  its  fair  pro- 
portions, he  will  find  nothing  between  him  and 
the  enjoyment  of  true  inspiration. 

The  flower  is  truly  impressed  by  the  light  and 
warmth  of  the  sun,  because  it  possesses  within 
itself  the  essential  qualities  and  properties  of 
beauty  and  development,  rand  hence  incorpo-. 
rates  the  descending  elements  of  vitality  in  its 
own  minute  structures.  It  is  not  merely  a  ves- 
sel for  the  immediate  reception  and  imputation 
of  light  and  warmth,  but  it  receives  those  ele- 
ments, subjects  them  to  a  chemical'  analysis, 
and  distributes  the  various  properties  to  the 
elaboration,  development  and  sustenance  of 
its  own  particular  individuality;  and  then  in 
accordance  with  the  immutable  principles  of 
distributive  justice  and  harmony,  the  flower 
breathes  forth  its  precious  odors  with  which  it 
loads  the  passing  breeze,  and  thus  imparts  pleas- 
ure to  many  loving  beings,  while  it  reflects  back 
the  rays  of  the  sun  in  beautiful  colors  that 
adorn  Nature  with  their  richest  hues.  So  it  is 
with  man;  like  every  flower  he  is  a  recipient  of 
this  kind  of  inspiration.  That  is  to  say,  the 
influx  of  thoughts,  facts  and  principles  into  the 


49 


soul,  which  that  particular  mind  may  appropri- 
ate; first  to  its  own  welfare  and  enlightenment 
and  then  shedding  it  abroad,  as  the  sun  spreads 
its  rays  over  the  earth  for  the  benefit  and  in- 
formation of  those  who  next  require  the  pab- 
ulum. 

In  all  ages  of  the  world  revelations  of  various 
kinds,  and  of  different  degrees  of  importance, 
have  been  given  to  mankind,  through  the  in- 
spiration of  prophets,  sages,  philosophers,  seers 
and  mediums.  It  all  comes  from"  the  same 
source;  it  all  bears  the  same  earmarks,  and  it 
all  tells  us  to  be  good  and  virtuous,  if  we  wish 
to  be  happy.  The  Bible  is  full  of  it — begin- 
ning with  Moses  and  the  burning  bush,  and 
ending  with  Saint  John  in  a  trance  on  the  Isle 
of  Patmos.  Nor  was  it  confined  to  the  Jews 
alone,  but  was  taught  to  the  Hindoos,  Persians, 
and  Chinese,  by  Brahma,  Zoroaster  and  Con- 
fucius, long  before  the  Jews  were  a  nation. 
The  writings  and  teachings  of  these  men  to  the 
whole  Eastern  world  was  that  sin  would  ulti- 
mately be  abolished,  that  everlasting  right- 
eousness would  be  brought  in,  and  that  then 
the  good  deity,  Ormuzd,  would  rejoice  with  joy 
unspeakable  forever  and  ever,  for  having  tri- 
umphed over  his  evil  brother,  Ahnman  (the 
devil). 

These  pure  men  and  women  of  all  ages  and 
nations  seemed  to  breathe  this  inspiration  from 
on  high.  They  have  spent  their  lives,  and  may 
have  died  in  the  cause  of  lifting  up  man  from 
.his  low  animal  nature  and  pointing  him  to  a 
purer  and  better  life  beyond  the  grave.  They 
have  been  scoffed  at  and  spat  upon  by  those 
in  high  places,  and  many  have  been  put  to 
death;  yet,  afterwards  they  have  been  deified, 
and  churches  and  temples  have  sent  up  their 
spires  to  honor  their  sainted  names. 

There  are  many  men  and  women  of  modern 
times  that  have  acted  and  been  controlled  by 
this  divine  influence,  who,  had  they  lived  in 
past  ages,  would  have  been  deified  for  their 
works;  Luther,  Calvin,  Joan  of  Arc,  the  Seer- 
ess  of  Provost,  A.  J.  Davis,  and  others,  who 
have  revealed  many  truths  concerning  the  con- 
nection between  the  natural  and  spiritual  world, 
and  between  soul  and  body.  And  there  are 
the  names  of  Baron  d'Holbach,  Charles  Fou- 
rier and  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  the  Swedish 
philosopher    and    psychologist,    who>e   writings 


'mpress  us  with  that  inspiration.  Sweden- 
borg claimed  to  have  seen  and  conversed  with 
angels,  as  did  Abraham  and  the  patriarchs  of 
old;  and  if  there  is  any  truth  in  the  one,  why 
not  believe  the  other,  for  it  is  more  recent  and 
better  authenticated. 

In  the  writings  of  Plato  we  see  the  spiritual 
identity  of  man  and  a  future  life,  and  his  phi- 
losophy reveals  some  very  important  laws  of 
Nature,  and  many  psychological  truths;  but  it 
is  mixed  up  with  a  vast  amount  of  heredi- 
tary superstition  and  absurdity.  In  Xeno- 
phon  we  find  a  higher  degree  of  beauty,  truth 
and  profitableness,  for  no  mind  was  ever  more 
deeply  impressed  with  the  truths  of  immor- 
tality than  his,  because  his  convictions  came 
from  the  gushing  aspirations  of  the  living  prin- 
ciple within;  and  his  philosophy  contains  more 
substantial  reasons  for  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  than  can  be  found  in  any  portion  of  the 
old  or  new  Testament. 


Jesus  Christ. 

Of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  new- 
Testament,  the  sermon  on  the  mount  is  the 
most  sublime  ever  spoken  by  mortal  man.  His 
whole  acts  seem  to  flow  from  a  pure  heart  and 
a  refined  and  spiritual  elevation  that  has  caused 
the  whole  Christian  world  to  deify  him  as  a 
son  of  God,  sent  into  the  world  to  redeem  sin- 
ners. 

In  him  Nature  worked  her  best  and  purest 
material,  and  the  influx  of  the  divine  spirit  was 
so  great  that  he  possessed  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  physical  and  mental  powers,  and  he 
stood  forth  a  model  of  form,  purity  and  good- 
ness. But  the  beauty  of  his  natural  principles 
and  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  his  life  and  its 
teachings  have  been  obscured  by  the  darkening 
influence  of  theological  interpretations,  which 
have  engrafted  it  on  Roman  paganism  and 
shrouded  his  life  and  acts  in  a  halo  ot  supersti- 
tion, and  invested  him  with  power  that  he 
never  claimed  to  possess.  Though  possessed  of 
great  healing  and  clairvoyant  powers,  he  only 
used  them  for  the  purpose  of  doing  good,  and 
the  many  useful  and  beautiful  moral  precepts 
taught  by  him  in  the  new  Testament  should 
cause  us  to  regard  him  with  deep  veneration,  as 
one  of  the  greatest  reformers  of  the  world,  and 
to  ascribe  any  higher  powers  would  be  doing 


50 


him  injustice,  for  he  did  not  profess  to  be  a  son 
of  God  in  any  other  sense  than  that  he  was  a 
branch  on  the  great -tree  of  hvmanity;  and  he 
did  not  profess  to  be  directed  and  impelled  by 
any  other  spirit  than  the  divine  love,  the  germ 
of  which  dwells  in  the  heart  of  every  being, 
undeveloped.  And  to  this  divine  principle  ex- 
isting in  others,  but  not  so  fully  developed,  he 
appealed  so  feelingly,  in  order  that  its  qualities 
might  advance  to  that  degree  of  refinement  in 
love  and  wisdom  which  he  possessed.  For  he 
was  a  perfect  type  of  a  man,  but  anything  more 
than  that  tends  to  injure  and  detract  from 
his  goodness  and  greatness,  as  it  is  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  if  the  birth  and  life  of  Christ 
had  been  of  such  a  miraculous  character  as 
some  wish  us  to  believe,  other  profane  histori- 
ans than  Josephus  would  have  mentioned  it, 
and  he  would  have  given  an  account  of  the 
so-called  miraculous  manifestations;  therefore 
it  is  evident  that  much  that  has  been  written  on 
this  subject  was  the  work  of  over-zealous  or 
designing  priestcraft. 

But  in  this  age  of  enlightenment  and  reason 
it  is  full  time  that  these  vile  superstitious  false- 
hoods were  swept  away  and  Christ  be  allowed 
to  stand  forth  in  the  true  light  of  a  great  re- 
former who  has  founded  a  church  that  has  done 
more  to  elevate  down-trodden  humanity  than 
any  other;  therefore  he  stands  at  the  head  of 
all  others  as  a  great  and  good  man,  possessed 
of  that  divine  power  of  looking  into  minds  and 
reading  the  hearts  of  men;  and,  like  all  great 
and  true  men,  willing  to  suffer  crucifixion  and 
death  for  principles  that  would  embalm  his 
memory  in  the  hearts  of  millions  to  come  after 
him,  and  raise  mankind  from  an  animal  plane 
of  existence  to  a  happier  and  better  home  be- 
yond the  grave  in  heaven. 

St.  Paul  says  that  God  made  Jesus  "a  little 
lower  than  the  angel,"  Hebrews,  iii,  3  and  9, 
"and  a  little  higher  than  Moses;"  "For  this 
man  was  counted  worthy  of  more  glory  than 
Moses."  It  is  evident  that  St.  Paul  never  con- 
sidered Christ  more  than  a  man  "full  of  the 
spirit  of  God."  Being  all  good-man  he  was 
therefore  a  god-man,  as  good  and  god  are  sy- 
nonyms in  the  old  Saxon  language.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  he  was  filled  with  the  divine  substance 
that  elevates  man  above  the  low,  groveling  ideas 
of  animal  existence.     It  is  evident  that  he  was 


mortal  and  preferred  to  live.  He  died  because 
he  could  not  help  it,  and  only,  when  betrayed, 
he  prayed  with  fervor,  until  "  his  sweat  was  as 
it  were  great  drops  of  blood,"  that  the  bitter 
cup  might  he  removed  from  him.  He  might 
have  made  himself  invisible  by  the  use  of  his 
mesmeric  power  over  the  bystanders,  as  he  had 
done  before  when  threatened  with  violence,  as 
is  claimed  by  Eastern  adepts,  and  made  his 
escape;  but,  seeing  that  his  hour  had  come,  he 
said,  "  Not  my  will  but  thine  be  done."  Luke 
xxiv,  34. 

It  is  evident  that  Jesus  was  initiated  into  all 
their  mysteries.  In  King's  "Gnostics,"  page 
145,  "  there  is  an  account  of  a  sarcophagus, 
the  panels  of  which  were  bas-reliefs  represent- 
ing the  miracles  of  Christ;  one,  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Lazarus,  in  which  Christ  appears  beard- 
less and  possessed  of  a  wand,  in  the  guise  of  a 
necromancer,  whilst  the  corpse  of  Lazarus  is 
swathed  in  bandages  exactly  as  an  Egyptian 
mummy."  And  Jesus  is  always  represented 
with  long,  waving  and  curling  hair  parted  in 
the  middle,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Naza- 
renes. 

The  Talmud,  speaking  of  the  "  Nazaria,  or 
Nazarenes"  (who  had  abandoned  the  world 
like  the  Hindoo  Yogis  or  hermit),  "  calls  them 
a  sect  of  physicians  or  wandering  exorcists. 
They  went  about  the  country,  living  on  alms 
and  performing  cures,"  fasting  and  praying 
and  performing  miracles,  like  Christ  and  his 
disciples. 

The  first  Christians  were,  doubtless  the  Ebi- 
onites,  and  in  this  we  follow  the  authority  of 
the  best  critics.  "  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  author  (of  the  Clementine  Manilas)  was 
a  representative  of  Ebionitic  Gnosticism,  which 
had  once  been  the  purest  form  of  primitive 
Christianity.  *  *  *  And  who  were  the 
Ebionites?  The  pupils  and  followers  of  the 
early  Nazarenes — the  Kabalistic  Gnostics  who 
derived  their  doctrine  from  the  oriental  philos- 
ophy. These  Nazarenes  were  a  despised  sect, 
on  account  of  their  different  religion  to  that  of 
the  Jews  (Codex  JVazarojns)." 

Kenan  shows  the  Ebionites  numbered  among 
their  sect  all  the  surviving  relatives  of  Jesus, 
and  some  of  whom  denounced  him.  John  the 
Baptist  was  his  cousin  and  precursor,  and  was 
the  accepted  savior  of  the  Nazarenes  and  their 


51 


prophets.  They  lived  over  and  beyond  the 
Jordan. 

There  is  not  a  word  in  the  new  Testament 
that  goes  to  show  that  Jesus  was  ever  actually 
regarded  by  his  disciples  as  God.  Neither  be- 
fore or  after  his  death  did  they  pay  him  divine 
honors.  Their  relation  to  him  was  that  of  dis- 
ciple, and  "  Master"  was  the  name  by  which 
they  addressed  him,  as  did  the  followers  of  Py- 
thagoras and  Plato.  He  never  claimed  he  was 
"God,"  but  said  he  was  the  "son  of  man," 
the  son  of  God  meaning  that  all  men  were  sons 
of  God ;  and  when  he  spoke  to  Mary  Magdalen 
at  the  tomb,  "Jesus  saith  unto  her,  'Touch 
me  not;  I  am  not  yet  ascended  to  my  father; 
but  go  to  my  brethren  and  say  unto  them  I 
ascend  to  my  father  and  your  Father,  and  to 
my  God  and  your  God,'"  John  xx,  17,  which 
implied  on  his  part  a  desire  to  be  considered  on 
a  perfect  equality  with  his  brethren,  nothing 
more;  that  it  was  his  astral  soul  or  spiritual 
body  that  she  beheld  and  that  he  did  not  wish 
her  to  touch  him. 

They  looked  upon  him  as  a  great  prophet,  a 
holy,  inspired  man,  a  vehicle  used  by  Christos 
(messenger),  through  which  the  spirit  of  God 
made  himself  manifest  to  man;  and  in  Luke 
Hi,  22,  "And  the  Holy  Ghost  (spirit)  descended 
in  a  body  shaped  like  a  dove  upon  him,  and 
voices  came  from  heaver,  which  said,  Thou 
art  my  beloved  son,  and  in  thee  I  am  well 
pleased."  In  another  place  it  says,  "Jesus, 
full  of  sacred  spirit,  returned  from  Jordan  and 
the  spirit  led  him  into  the  desert."  These  pas- 
sages are  enough  of  themselves  to  convince  any 
unprejudiced  mind  that  he  was  a  great  medium 
and  seer,  through  whom  the  spirits  manifested. 

It  is  evident  that  Christ  understood  the 
magic  art,  when  he  says,  "Go  ye,  therefore, 
and  teach  all  nations,  *.  *  *  and  lo,  lam 
with  you  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world," 
(that  is,  his  spirit)  and  the  apostles  performed 
miracles  in  his  name  after  he  was  crucified. 
The  prison  doors  were  opened  to  Peter  and 
the  jailor  was  affrighted.  It  is  claimed  that  the 
keys  of  heaven  were  left  with  St.  Peter.  Baron 
Bronson  shows  that  the  word  Patar  or  Peter 
was  a  mystic  word  which  "  locates  both  master 
and  disciple  in  the  circle  of  initiations,  and 
connects  them  with  the  secret  doctrines  as  they 
were   taught    by    the    hierophants    of    ancient 


Egypt,"  and  that  the  ancient  "  Book  of  the 
Dead,"  found  in  the  tombs,  dating  back  4,500 
years  B.  C,  had  this  word  written  in  hierogly- 
phics, and  Jesus  knew  the  secret  meaning  of 
the  word  bestowed  by  him  on  Simon,  who  was 
thereafter  called  Peter,  whom  he  initiated  into 
all  the  mysteries,  who  continued  to  perform 
miracles  and  wonderful  things,  and  this  power 
is  still  claimed  by  the  Church  of  Rome. 

Christ  said,  "Why  callest  thou  me  good? 
There  is  none  good  but  one;  that  is  God." 
"And  whosoever  shall  speak  a  word  against  the 
son  of  man  shall  be  forgiven  him;  but  unto 
him  that  blasphemeth  against  the  Holy  Ghost 
it  shall  not  be  forgiven."  Luke  xxii,  10.  Is  this 
the  language  of  a  God,  of  the  second  person  in 
the  trinity  who  is  identical  with  the  first  ? 

Say  the  Hermes,  "  No  one  of  the  gods,  no 
man  or  lord  can  be  good  but  God  alone." 
Christ  made  use  of  the  same  expression.  "To 
be  a  good  man  is  impossible,  God  alone  pos- 
sesses this  privilege,"  says  Plato.  John  the 
Baptist  did  not  consider  Christ  a  god,  when  he 
baptized  him  (John  i,  6  and  30),  "  This  is  he 
of  whom  I  said,  After  me  cometh  a  man" 
Speaking  of  himself  Jesus  says,  "  You  seek  to 
kill  me,  a  man  that  hath  told  you  the  truth 
which  I  have  heard  of  God"  John  viii,  40. 
And  even  the  blind  man  of  Jerusalem,  when 
speaking  of  who  had  healed  him,  said,  "  A 
man  that  is  called  Jesus  made  clay  and  anoint- 
ed mine  eyes."  John  ix,  n. 

Christ  in  all  his  sayings  is  in  a  Pythagorian 
spirit.  When  not  verbatim  repetitions,  his 
code  of  ethics  is  purely  Buddhistic;  his  mode 
of  action  and  walk  of  life  Essenian;  and  his 
mystical  mode  of  expression,  his  parables  and 
his  ways  those  of  an  initiate,,  whether  Grecian, 
Chaldean  or  Magian  (for  the  "  perfect,"  who 
spoke  the  hidden  wisdom,  were  of  the  same 
school  of  Archaic  learning  the  world  over);  it 
is  difficult  to  escape  from  the  logical  conclusion 
that  he  belonged  to  the  same  body  of  initiates. 
Secret  societies  and  sects  extended  all  over  the 
East  at  that  time,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  an  initiate. 

The  learned  philologists  have  been  able  to 
trace  this  coming  messiah  far  back  in  the  sacred 
books  of  the  ancient  Hindoos,  written  in  the 
Sanscrit;  which  is  the  mother  language  of  the 
Aryan  race.     They  had  their  trinity  and  they 


52 


had  their  savior;  so  did  the  Persians  and  so  did 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Mexico.  When  the 
latter  country  was  invaded  by  Cortez,  the  priest 
said,  "The  devil  was  ahead  of  us;  how  could 
these  people  know  of  Christ  and  the  Virgin 
Mary  unless  the  devil  had  told  them  of  it." 

The  Christian  Adventist  undoubtedly  got  his 
idea  from  the  Hindoo,  for  it  says  in  their  sa- 
cred book,  *'  When  Vishnu  appears  for  the  last 
time  he  will  come  as  a  savior."  According  to 
the  opinion  of  the  Brahmans  he  will  appear 
in  the  form  of  a  horse,  Kalki.  Others  claim 
he  will  be  mounting  it.  This  horse  is  the  en- 
velope of  the  evil  spirit,  and  Vishnu  will  mount 
it,  invisible  to  all,  until  he  has  conquered  it, 
for  the  last  time,  then  he  will  become  visible 
and  all  mankind  will  become  good  and  then 
comes  the  millenium."  The  Bible  speaks  of 
Christ  coming  again  on  a  white  horse. 

The  Christian  virtues  inculcated  by  Jesus  in 
the  sermon  on  the  mount  are  nowhere  exempli- 
fied in  the  Christian  world.  The  Buddhist  as- 
cetics and  Indian  fakirs  seem  almost  the  only 
ones  that  inculcate  and  practice  them,  and 
these  the  Christians  call  heathen  and  send  mis- 
sionaries to  teach  them  morals  that  they  have 
derived  from  them,  revamped,  and  under  new 
names  given  to  their  gods,  they  try  to  teach 
that  which  they  do  not  practice. 

In  the  history  of  man,  there  appears  to  have 
been  many  saviors,  who  died  to  redeem  him 
from  sin,  to  teach  him  higher  and  nobler  aspi- 
rations and  fit  him  for  the  life  to  come.  There 
are  three  that  stand  out  more  prominent  than 
all  the  rest  who  have  a  history;  they  are  the 
founders  of  churches  that  have  millions  of 
members  who  bow  down  and  bless  their  names 
and  through  them  seek  to  gain  admission  into 
heaven — Chrisna,  Gautama  Buddha  and  Jesus 
of  Nazareth. 


Chrisna, 

The  savior  of  the  Hindoos,  is  the  oldest.  His 
ej)och,  on  which  European  science  fears  to 
commit  itself,  is  uncertain;  but  the  Brahmanical 
calculations  fix  it  at  about  6,877  years  ago.  He 
descended  of  a  royal  family,  but  was  brought 
up  by  shepherds.  Man  had,  perhaps,  advanced 
in  civilization  to  the  stage  of  shepherds;  he  is, 
theiefore  called  the  shepherd's  god. 

His  birth  and  divine    descent  are  kept  secret 


from  Kansa,  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  the 
second  person  of  the  trinity.  Chrisna  was 
worshiped  at  Mathura,  on  the  river  Jumna. 
(See  Strabo,  Arrian  and  Bampton.) 

Chrisna  is  persecuted  by  Kansa,  tyrant  of 
Madura,  but  miraculously  escapes.  In  the 
hope  of  destroying  the  child,  the  king  has  thou- 
sands of  male  innocents  slaughtered.  Chris- 
na's  mother  was  Devaki  or  Devanagui,  an  im- 
maculate virgin,  who  had  given  birth  to  eight 
sons  before  Chrisna.  He  is  endowed  with 
beauty,  omniscience  and  omnipresence  from 
the  time  of  his  birth;  produces  mimcles,  cures 
the  lame  and  the  blind,  casts  out  demons, 
washed  the  feet  of  the  Brahmans,  and,  descend- 
ing into  the  lower  regions,  hell,  liberates  the 
dead,  and  returns  to  Vaicontha,  the  paradise 
of  Vishnu.  Chrisna  was  the  god  Vishnu  in 
human  form — he  crushes  the  serpent's  head. 

Chrisna  is  unitarian.  He  charges  the  clergy 
with  ambition  and  hypocrisy  to  their  face,  di- 
vulges the  great  secrets  of  the  sanctuary — the 
unity  of  god  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
Tradition  says  he  fell  a  victim  to  the  vengeance 
of  the  clergy.  His  favorite  disciple,  Ajuna, 
never  deserts  him  to  the  last.  There  are  cred- 
ible traditions  that  he  died  on  a  cross  (a  tree) 
nailed  to  it  with  arrows.  The  best  scholars 
agree  that  the  Irish  cross  at  Taum,  erected  long 
before  the  Christian  era.  is  Asiatic.  (See 
Round  Towers,  p.  296.)  Chrisna  ascends  to 
Swarga  and  becomes  Nirguna. 

Chrisna  stands  at  the  head  of  the  Brahman 
religion.  It  is  spread  over  India  and  has  about 
sixty  millions  of  believers,  who  have  degenera- 
ted into  caste,  leaving  to  the  Brahma  01  the 
highest  class,  full  control  of  all  religious  teach- 
ing in  the  vedas.  And  these  lower  caste,  like 
the  ignorant  and  superstitious  of  all  countries, 
have  degenerated  or  never  rose  to  that  intelli- 
gence, so  they  were  unable  to  understand  the 
symbols  and  sublime  truths  that  were  taught  in 
the  mythical  figures  of  the  vedas,  but  became 
worshipers  of  the  idols  that  were  used  to  rep- 
resent the  true  religion. 

Krishna  or  Chrisna  was  worshiped  as  an 
avotard  of  Vishnu,  who  was  one  of  the  sun 
gods  of  the  ancient  Hindoos,  and  by  his  reincar- 
nation in  Chrisna  he  became  a  redeemer,  who 
would  listen  to  the  prayer  of  man;  and  that 
the  gods,  to  execute  anything  for  the  benefit  ol 


53 


man,  he  had  to  become  incarnated  in  some 
animal  or  man.  Vishnu,  it  is  said,  became  in- 
carnated ten  times;  the  first  time  in  a  fish,  the 
second  time  in  a  tortoise,  the  third  time  in  a 
boar,  and  the  remaining  seven  times  were  in 
human  forms. 

If  we  will  only  search  for  the  true  essence  of 
the  philosophy  in  both  Manu  and  the  Kabala, 
we  will  find  that  Vishnu  is  the  Adam  Kadmon, 
the  expression  of  the  universe  itself;  and  that 
his  incarnations  are  the  concrete  and  various 
embodiments  of  the  manifestations  of  the 
"  Stupendous  Whole."  "  I  am  the  soul  which 
exists  in  the  hearts  of  all  things,  and  I  am  the 
beginning  and  the  middle  and  also  the  end  of 
existing  things,"  says  Vishnu  to  his  disciple  in 
Baghavad-Ghita,  chapter  Xt  page  71. 

"  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and 
the  end.  *  *  *  I  am  the  first  and  the 
last,"  says  Jesus  to  John,  in  Rev.  1-6:  17. 
And  if  we  will  closely  examine  the  new  Testa- 
ment we  can  see  the  ear-marks  of  the  reincar- 
nation of  Chrisna  in  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  been 
made  another  avatar  of  the  same  reincarnation 
of  Vishnu,  the  redeemer  of  the  Hindoos. 

It  is  thought  by  some  of  the  Oriental  writers 
that  the  wise  men  spoken  of  in  the  new  Testa- 
ment that  came  from  the  East,  guided  by  the 
star  to  Bethlehem,  were  Brahmin  priests. 

Gautama  Buddha. 

Gautama  Buddha,  the  savior  of  the  Buddists, 
Tartars  and  Chinese,  according  to  European 
science  and  the  Ceylonese  calculations,  lived 
about  2,540  years  ago.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
king.  His  first  disciples  were  also  shepherds 
and  mendicants,  and  when  he  dies  his  spirit 
reincarnates  into  that  of  a  new-born  babe.  His 
mother  was  Maya,  or  Maya  deva  (great  Mary), 
married  to  her  husband,  yet  an  immaculate  vir- 
gin. He  is  endowed  with  the  same  powers  and 
performs  wonders  like  that  of  Chrisna,  and  he 
also  crushes  the  serpent's  head,  /'.  e.,  abolishes 
the  Naga  woiship  as  fetishism;  but,  like  Jesus, 
makes  the  serpent  the  emblem  of  divine  wis- 
dom. He  abolishes  idolatry,  divulges  the  mys- 
teries of  the  unity  of  God  and  Nirvana,  and  is 
persecuted  and  driven  out  of  the  country,  gath- 
ers thousands  of  believers  around  him  and  dies 
with  his  faithful  and  beloved  disciple  and 
cousin,  Ananda.     He  escaped  crucifixion.     At 


the  hour  of  his  birth  there  were  thirty-two 
thousand  wonders  performed;  the  clouds  were 
stopped  in  the  sky,  rivers  ceased  to  flow,  flow- 
ers ceased  to  bear,  the  birds  remained  silent 
and  full  of  wonder,  the  animals  stopped  eating, 
the  blind  saw,  the  lame  and  dumb  were  cured, 
and  all  nature  remained  suspended. 

He  is  represented  in  many  temples  as  sitting 
under  a  cruciform  tree,  which  is  the  "  Tree  of 
Life."  In  another  image  he  is  sitting  on  Naga, 
the  Raga  of  serpents,  with  a  cross  on  his  breast. 
Buddha  ascends  to  Nirvana  (heaven),  while 
Jesus  ascends  to  paradise. 

In  the  two  preceding  characters  we  can  see 
that  they  are  much  alike  to  that  of  Jesus,  and 
would  naturally  come  to  the  conclusion  that  one 
was  taken  from  the  other,  though  the  two  former 
were  born  of  royal  parentage,  which  they  for- 
sook to  become  teachers  of  the  humble  and 
low  born.  That  their  mothers  were  immacu- 
late and  had  holy  conceptions;  that  the  king 
sought  to  slay  them;  that  the  child  was  en- 
dowed with  wonderful  powers  and  great  intelli- 
gence. They  all  performed  miracles,  cured  the 
lame  and  the  blind,  cast  out  demons,  washed 
their  disciples'  feet,  descended  into  hell  and 
liberated  the  dead. 

That  Chrisna  and  Jesus  both  died  on  the 
cross;  one  transfixed  by  arrows  to  a  tree 
and  the  other  was  nailed  to  a  cross;  that 
they  arose  and  ascended  to  heaven.  So  strik- 
ing and  alike  are  these  three  characters  that  one 
is  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  they  are  the 
same,  and  out  of  the  dim  rays  of  the  past  that 
reflect  Chrisna  comes  the  mythical  outlines  of 
the  mythical  Jesus,  from  whose  teachings  were 
drawn  those  of  the  historical  Christos;  for  we 
find  that  under  one  identical  garment  of  poetical 
legend  lived  and  breathed  three  real  human  fig- 
ures. The  individual  merit  of  each  of  them  is 
brought  out  in  rather  stronger  relief  than  oth- 
erwise by  the  same  mythical  coloring,  for  no 
unworthy  character  could  have  been  selected 
for  deification  by  the  popular  instinct,  so  uner- 
erring  and  just  when  left  untrammeled. 

If  they  were  three  distinct  personages  the 
similarity  would  impress  us  with  the  truth  of 
the  Buddhist  faith:  the  reincarnation  of  the 
same  spirit  in  three  distinct  forms,  and  differ- 
ent periods  of  the  world's  history.  It  may  be 
contended  that  Chrisna  and  Buddha  were  char* 


54 


acters  taken  from  that  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
But  ample  proof  is  at  hand  to  show  that  either 
of  these  religions  extends  far  back  into  the  night 
of  time  beyond  the  birth  of  Christ  or  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  era. 

They  all  taught  a  spiritual  religion  involving 
about  the  same  principles,  but  their  followers 
have  perverted  their  sublime  teachings  and 
turned  them  to  suit  their  own  interest,  to  en- 
slave man  and  load  his  mind  down  with  ignor- 
ance and  superstition,  and  teach  him  to  worship 
idols  and  symbols  instead  of  the  one  living 
God. 

The  tendency  in  all  ages  has  been  to  deify 
their  great  and  good  men  when  dead,  and  to 
make  saints  out  of  them,  which  has,  no  doubt, 
given  rise  to  a  multiplicity  of  gods  and  demi- 
gods, similar  to  those  of  the  old  Greek  and  Ro- 
man mythology,  who  at  one  time  were  men, 
and  these  sages,  statesmen  and  warriors  became 
the  tutelar  deities  of  their  country,  to  whom 
the  people  made  offering  as  a  mark  of  rever- 
ence and  to  get  them  to  use  their  influence  in 
their  behalf,  which  has  tended  to  confuse  the 
idea  of  one  universal  God,  and  to  give  to  that 
God  a  human  form,  as  these  tutelar  deities  and 
guardian  spirits  and  administering  angels  were 
once  human  beings  and  have  evolved  under  the 
law  of  progress  and  development  to  higher 
spheres.  And  as  they  still  retain  their  form 
when  seen  by  seers,  prophets  and  mediums,  it 
is  natural  to  conclude  that  the  supreme  God, 
the  first  prime  cause,  was  an  anthropomorphous 
being — a  man-like  god — and  as  the  Bible  says 
God  made  man  in  his  own  image,  therefore 
man  was  like  unto  God,  when  in  reality  the 
Jehovah  of  the  Jews  or  old  Bible  was  only  the 
tutelar  deity  of  that  race  of  people,  and  not 
the  supreme  God,  as  it  is  time  and  again  said  in 
the  same  book  that  no  man  had  ever  seen  the 
face  of  God. 

The  three  personalities,  Chrisna,  Gautama 
and  Jesus,  were  so  far  above  the  common  herd 
of  mankind  that  they  appeared  to  be  true  gods, 
each  in  his  epoch,  and  they  have  left  to  human- 
ity three  religions,  built  upon  the  imperishable 
rock  of  ages,  that  have  withstood  the  assaults 
of  time  and  the  attacks  of  skepticism,  for  man, 
being  a  religious  animal,  must  have  some  God 
to  worship,  some  one  to  pray  to  and  do  hom- 
age, and  not  having  a  conception  of  the  sublime 


truths,  readily  mistakes  the  symbols  or  the  idols 
for  the  real  person  whom  it  is  intended  to  rep- 
resent, falls  into  idolatry  and  superstition. 
Thus  the  sublime  teachings  of  these  three  great 
and  good  men  have  become  adulterated  so  that 
it  is  hard  to  recognize  them  as  they  are  now 
taught  by  their  disciples  and  priests.  But 
through  the  skill  and  learning  of  Max  Muller 
and  other  philologists  who  have  been  able  to 
trace  them  back  to  their  origin  in  the  Sanscrit 
language,  we  can  see  that  they  all  had  one  com- 
mon origin  in  the  teachings  of  Christos,  who  is 
the  founder  of  the  spiritual  faith  of  the  Aryan 
race.  "  Yet,"  says  Muller,  "we  find  the  his- 
ry  of  Gautama  copied  word  for  word  from  the 
Buddhist  sacred  books  into  the  golden  legend, 
names  of  individuals  are  changed,  the  place  of 
action — India — remains  the  same  in  the  Chris- 
tian as  in  the  Buddhist  legends." 

"  The  sacred  scriptures  of  Hindoo  stole 
Brahma,  the  sacrificer,  who  is  at  once  both 
sacrificer  and  victim;"  it  is  Brahma,  victim  in  ' 
his  own  son  Chrisna,  who  came  to  die  on  earth 
for  our  salvation,  who  himself  accomplishes  the 
solemn  sacrifice  (of  the  Sarvameda),  and  yet  it 
is  the  man  Jesus  as  well  as  the  man  Chrisna, 
for  both  were  united  to  their  Christos;  they  are 
theiefore  the  same,  identical  persons,  or  two 
reincarnations  of  the  same  spirit,  which  is  in 
accordance  with  the  Buddhist  faith.  The  rein- 
carnation of  the  Llama  of  Thibet,  an  adept  of 
the  highest  order,  may  live  indefinitely.  When 
the  mortal  casket  wears  out  he  reincarnates 
himself  (the  Ego)  in  the  body  of  a  new-born 
babe,  and  he  begins  his  existence  in  a  new 
body.  This  may  appear  strange,  yet  Jesus 
sj)eaks  of  the  second  birth,  after  the  natural 
birth — born  in  the  spirit.  This  might  have  ref- 
erence to  the  will  force  freeing  its  astral  soul 
so  that  it  might  communicate  with  spirits  in  the 
spirit  land. 

Jesus  Christ  tries  to  imbue  the  hearts  of  his 
audience  with  scorn  for  wordly  wealth,  fakir- 
like unconcern  for  mammon,  love  of  humanity, 
poverty  and  chastity.  He  blesses  the  poor  in 
spirit,  the  meek,  the  hungry  and  the  thirsting 
after  righteousness,  the  merciful  and  peace- 
makers, and,  like  Buddha,  leaves  but  a  poor 
chance  for  the  proud  caste  to  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  Kvery  word  of  his  ser- 
mon is  an  echo  of  the  essential    principles  of 


monotheistic    Buddhism.     The  ten  command 
ments  of  Buddha  are  found  in  an  appendix  to 
the  Pratimoksha  Sutra   (Pali-Burman  text)  and 
are    elaborated    to    their    full    extent,    as    in 
Matthew. 

So  great  is  the  similarity  of  the  teachings  of 
these  two  great  reformers  that  the  Orientalist 
will  not  admit  that  they  are  different  persons, 
but  say  that  they  are  the  teachings  of  Buddha. 
And  so  much  alike  are  some  of  the  religious 
services  that  a  Portuguese  Catholic  missionary, 
who  was  sent  to  Cochin  China  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  wrote  back  home  saying  that  the  devil 
had  been  ahead  of  him  and  introduced  the 
Catholic  service  among  them. 

Apollonius  of  Tyana. 


Apollonius  of  Tyana,  a  contemporary  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  was,  like  him,  a  religious 
enthusiast  and  founder  of  a  new  spiritual  school. 
He  was  less  metaphysical  and  more  practical, 
yet  less  tender  and  perfect  in  his  nature,  and  he 
inculcated  the  same  quintessence  of  spiritual- 
ity and  the  same  high  moral  truths.  He  con- 
fined himself  to  the  society  of  the  rich  while 
Christ  confined  himself  to  that  of  the  poor. 
He  was  the  friend  of  kings  and  moved  among 
the  aristocracy,  and  he  was  born  rich.  Never- 
theless they  were  both  miracle-workers,  healing 
the  sick,  raising  the  dead,  etc.,  yet  his  miracles 
are  more  wonderful  and  varied  and  better  at- 
tested. Materialism  denies  the  fact  in  both 
cases,  but  history  affirms  it.  Apollonius,  who 
is  represented  as  one  of  the  sixteen  saviors  that 
mankind  has  had,  is  claimed  by  some  to  have 
been  like  Christ,  crucified  and  rose  from  the 
dead,  and  appeared  to  his  disciples,  but  history 
does  not  bear  out  the  assertion. 

He  performed  supernatural  cures  and,  like 
the  Spiritualist  of  the  present  day,  proclaimed 
to  the  people  that  he  was  heaven-ordained.  He 
confounded  the  most  learned  scholars  of  Rome 
and  Greece.  He  ate  no  animal  food,  discarded 
woollen  clothes,  wore  his  hair  long  and  well 
combed,  washed  his  face,  kept  his  body  sweet 
and  clean,  refused  to  associate  with  women, 
lived  single  like  Jesus,  the  Shakers  and  Catho- 
lic piiests;  was  opposed  to  offering  up  sacrifi- 
ces, did  not  think  much  of  oral  prayer,  believed 
in  free  speech,  taught  a  new  religion,  honor, 
equity,  personal  purity  and  universal  education, 


and  performed  miracles  like  Pythagoras,  who 
was  a  bright  medium  and  claimed  to  get  his 
wonderful  powers  and  knowledge  from  on  high. 
He  could  perform  a  magnetic  or  psychologic 
cure,  and  was  believed  to  be  a  god  or  a  son  of 
a  god,  or  else  a  veritable  Beelzebub,  the  prince 
of  devils. 

When  Apollonius  desired  to  hear  the  "  small 
voice  "  (the  spirits),  he  would  wrap  himself  up 
in  a  fine  woollen  mantle,  on  \yhich  he  stood 
upon  both  feet,  after  making  certain  magnetic 
passes  and  offering  an  invocation  well  known  to 
the  adept.  Then  he  drew  the  mantle  over  his 
head  and  face  and  his  translucid  or  astral  spirit 
was  free,  which  was  similar  to  the  account  the 
Bible  gives  of  Elijah:  "  When  Elijah  heard  it 
he  wrapped  his  face  in  his  mantle  and  stood  in 
the  entering  of  the  cave,  and  behold  there  came 
the  voice." 

Apollonius  went  to  Hindostan  in  search  of 
the  wisdom  of  the  Brahmins.  He  was  brought 
into  the  presence  of  the  chief  sage  of  the  East, 
who  addressed  him  in  the  following  language: 
"It  is  the  custom  of  others  to  inquire  of  those 
who  visit  them  who  they  are  and  for  what  pur- 
pose they  come;  but  with  us  the  first  evidence 
of  wisdom  is  that  we  are  not  ignorant  of  those 
who  come  to  us."  Thereupon  this  clairvoyant 
recounted  to  Apollonius  the  most  notable  events 
of  his  life,  also  his  father  and  mother,  and  the 
incidents  of  his  journey  and  who  were  his  com- 
panions and  all  about  him.  He  was  awed  by 
the  knowledge  they  possessed  and  earnestly 
sought  to  be  admitted  into  their  secrets. 
After  the  usual  length  of  waiting  he  became 
duly  illuminated  and  returned  and  astonished 
Europe  with  his  piercing  clairvoyance  and  won- 
derful powers  in  healing  and  knowledge  of  the 
occult  force. 

His  power  of  divining  the  future  was  won- 
derful. While  lecturing  at  Ephesus  he  sudden- 
ly stopped  and  exclaimed,  "  Strike!  stiike  the 
tyrant!  Domitian  is  no  more;  the  world  is  de- 
livered of  its  bitterest  oppressor!"  At  that  day 
and  hour  Emperor  Domitian  was  assassinated 
at  Rome,  and  he  saw  it  though  hundreds  of 
miles  distant. 


Pythagoras. 

"  Pythais,    the   mother   of  Pythagoras,    was 
overshadowed  by  the  specter  or  ghost  of  the 


56 


god  Apollo,  who  afterwards  appeared  to  the 
husband  and  informed  him  of  the  divine  origin 
of  the  child  about  to  be  born." 

'*  Hercules,  or  Alcide*  as  he  was  called  by 
the  Greeks,  was  always  claimed  to  be  the  son 
of  the  god  Jupiter  by  a  human  mother  Alemena, 
the  wife  of  a  Theban  king." 

"  Apollo,  Mercury  and  Adonis  were  all 
claimed  to  be  incarnations,  each  being  '  sons 
of  God '  born  of  mortal  woman;  each  being 
for  a  time  incarnate  on  earth  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind;  each  destroyed  and  received  up  into 
heaven  again,  as  mediators  between  the  Most 
High  Zeus,  the  Great  Unknown  and  Unknow- 
able, and  sinful  men." 

Parkhurst,  in  his  Greek  Lexicon,  says:  "  It 
is  well  known  that  by  Hercules  was  meant  the 
sun  or  solar  light,  and  his  twelve  famous  labors 
referred  to  his  passage  through  the  zodiacal 
signs."  And  that  the  Garden  of  the  Hesperi- 
des  was  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  the  serpent's 
head  was  crushed  beneath  the  heel  of  Her- 
cules; all  of  which  goes  to  show  that  the  an- 
cient theology  taught  by  Moses  was  the  same 
as  that  which  existed  in  India,  Egypt,  China, 
Assyria,  Babylon,  Persia,  Arabia,  Asia  Minor 
and  Palestine;  with  the  Greeks,  Romans,  Celts, 
Gauls,  modern  Europeans,  Australians,  ancient 
Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  which  had  its  origin 
with  the  pre-historic  man  long  before  the  conti- 
nents took  their  present  shape.  The  legends 
among  the  savage  as  well  as  the  civilized  man, 
point  to  the  antique  garb,  with  its  shreds  and 
patches  of  ever  increasing  theological  compli- 
cations, for  the  benefit  of  modern  fanaticism, 
and  the  edification  of  those  who  are  content  to 
take  the  word  of  priestcraft,  instead  of  think- 
ing and  investigating  for  themselves. 

Esculapius. 

There  is  a  splendid  description  given  of  the 
great  savior,  Esculapius,  in  Ovid's  Metamor- 
phoses: 

"  Once  as  the  sacred  infant  she  surveyed, 
The  god  was  kindled  in  the  raving  maid,* 
And  thus  she  uttered  her  prophetic  tale: 
'  Hail,  great  physician  of  the  world,  all  hail! 
Shall  heal  the  nations  and  defraud  the  tomb; 
Swift  be  thy  growth,  thy  triumph's  unconfined; 
Make  kingdoms  thicker  and  increase  mankind; 


*  Pythoness  or  sybil. 


Thy  daring  acts  shall  animate  the  dead, 
And  rouse  the  thunder  on  thy  guilty  head; 
Then  shalt  thou  die,  but  from  the  dark  abode 
Shall  rise  victorious  and  be  twice  a  god.'  " 

"  Strabo  informs  us  that  the  temples  of  Es- 
culapius were  constantly  filled  with  the  sick, 
and  that  tablets  were  hung  all  over  the  walls, 
describing  the  cures  effected  by  The  Savior" 
There  is  still  a  remarkable  fragment  of  one  of 
these  tablets  extant,  and  exhibited  by  Greuter 
in  his  collection.  It  was  found  in  the  ruins  of 
a  temple  of  Esculapius,  which  gives  an  account 
of  two  blind  men  restored  to  sight  by  Escula- 
pius in  the  open  view,  and  with  the  loud  accla- 
mations of  the  people  acknowledging  the  power 
of  the  god." 

Aischylus. 

Of  /Eschylus,  under  the  name  of  Prome- 
theus, "Seneca  and  Hesiod  say  that  he  was 
nailed  to  an  upright  beam  of  timber,  to  which 
were  affixed  extended  arms  of  wood,  and  this 
cross  was  situated  near  the  Caspian  Straits." 
"  At  the  final  exit  of  this  god  the  whole  frame 
of  nature  became  convulsed;  the  earth  shook, 
the  rocks  were  rent,  the  graves  were  opened, 
and  in  a  storm  which  seemed  to  threaten  the 
dissolution  of  the  universe,  the  solemn  scene 
closed,  and  the  savior  gavcup  the  ghost." 

Xenophon. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Xenophon  was 
a  man  of  noble  aspirations  and  a  believer  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  Speaking  of  sleep, 
he  says:  "Nothing  so  nearly  resembles  death 
as  sleep,  and  nothing  so  strongly  intimates  the 
divinity  of  the  soul  as  what  passes  in  the  mind 
on  that  occasion,  for  the  intellectual  principle 
in  man,  during  this  state  of  relaxation  and  free- 
dom from  external  impressions,  frequently  looks 
forward  into  futurity  and  discerns  events  before 
time  has  yet  brought  them  forth,  a  plain  indica- 
tion of  what  the  power  of  the  soul  will  here- 
after be,  when  the  soul  shall  be  delivered  from 
the  restraints  of  its  present  bondage." 
Cicero. 

Cicero,  the  great  orator  and  statesman,  was 
also  a  defender  of  those  unvarying  principles 
that  govern  the  universe  and  was  endowed  with 
a  consciousness  of  the  truth,  which  caused  him 
to  discard  superficial  theories  that  then  shroud- 


57 


ed  the  public  mind  in  the  form  of  heathen  my- 
thology. He  was  a  great  lover  of  nature,  and 
his  mind  was  lifted  far  above  the  herd  of  ignor- 
ant, superstitious  humanity,  which  in  all  ages 
of  the  world  is  ready  to  put  to  death  those  no- 
ble defenders  of  truth  and  justice  who  teach  a 
doctrine  in  opposition  to  that  which  they  pro- 
fess. 

Cicero  says:  "  For  my  own  part,  I  feel  my- 
self transported  with  the  most  ardent  impa- 
tience to  join  the  society  of  my  departed 
friends.  I  ardently  wish,  also,  to  visit  those 
celestial  worthies  of  whose  honorable  conduct 
I  have  heard  and  read  much,  or  whose  virtues 
I  have  myself  commemorated  in  some  of  my 
writings.  To  this  glorious  assembly  I  am  speed- 
ily advancing,  and  I  would  not  turn  back  in 
my  journey,  even  on  assured  condition  that 
youth  like  that  of  Pelius  should  again  be  re- 
stored. *  *  *  And  after  all,  should  this, 
my  persuasion  of  the  soul's  immortality  prove 
to  be  a  mere  delusion,  it  is  at  least  a  pleasing 
delusion,  and  I  will  cherish  it  to  my  last 
breath.  I  am  well  convinced,  then,  that  my 
dear  departed  friends  are  so  far  from  having 
ceased  to  live,  that  the  state  they  now  enjoy 
can  alone  with  propriety  be  called  life." 

Socrates. 

Socrates  is  as  much,  if  not  more,  of  an  au- 
thority in  the  scientific  and  literary  world  than 
many  of  the  Christian  and  so-called  sacred 
writers.  He  testified  in  the  midst  of  all  his 
wisdom  and  learning  to  the  continued  presence 
of  his  daemon  or  guardian  angel,  who  warns 
him  of  danger,  predicts  to  him  events  that  are 
coming,  reveals  to  him  the  state  of  the  future 
life  and  makes  the  gateway  of  death  one  of 
glory  and  grandeur. 

Some  of  the  ancient  writers  of  the  church 
claim  that  Socrates,  the  Athenian  philosopher, 
was  a  good  man.  As  Christ  was  a  teacher  to 
the  Jews,  so  Socrates  was  a  teacher  of  the  true 
philosophy  to  the  Gentiles.  **  And  those  who 
lived  according  to  the  Logos,"  says  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  "  were  really  Christians,  though 
they  have  been  thought  to  be  Atheists,  as  Soc- 
rates and  Heraclitus  were  among  the  Greeks, 
and  such  as  resembled  them;"  "  for  God,"  says 
Origen,  "revealed  these  things  to  them  and 
whatever  things  have  been  well  spoken." 


In  Socrates  we  find  those  sublime  truths  that 
removed  the  fear  of  death,  and  in  his  conversa- 
tions we  have  the  best  reasons  ever  given  by 
man  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  man- 
ner of  his  death  and  the  composure  with  which 
he  swallowed  the  poison  is  only  equaled  by  the 
tragic  end  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Zoroaster. 

Zoroaster,  the  founder  of  the  fire-worshipers 
of  Persia,  was  born  under  somewhat  similar 
circumstances  to  those  of  Christ,  though  his 
parents  descended  from  kings.  "His  mother, 
when  pregnant,  saw  in  a  vision  a  being  glorious 
as  Djemschid,  who  assailed  the  Deves  (the 
Persian  evil  spirits)  with  a  sacred  writing,  before 
which  they  fled  in  terror.  The  interpretation 
given  by  the  magician  was  that  she  should  be 
favored  among  women  by  bearing  a  son  to 
whom  Ormuzd  (good — god)  would  make  known 
his  laws  and  who  should  spread  them  through 
all  the  East.  Against  this  son  every  power  of 
evil  would  be  in  arms."  That  after  many  trials 
and  much  persecution  he  should  triumph,  and 
at  last  should  ascend  to  the  side  Of  Ormuzd  in 
the  highest  heaven,  and  his  foe  sink  into  Ahri- 
mana  and  hell. 

King  Darius  sought  like  Herod  to  kill  him, 
and  on  lifting  up  his  sword  to  hew  the  child  in 
pieces,  his  arm  was  grasped  by  some  unseen 
power  and  was  withered  to  the  shoulder,  which 
so  frightened  the  king  that  he  dropped  the 
sword  and  fled  in  terror.  They  then  stole  the 
child  from  his  mother  and  cast  him  into  the 
flames;  there  he  lay  peacefully  on  his  fiery 
couch  as  if  in  his  cradle;  where  he  was  found  by 
his  mother  (Dogdo),  who  carried  him  home  un- 
harmed. Many  efforts  were  made  to  kill  him 
but  he  always  escaped  unharmed.  #He  was 
placed  in  the  way  of  wild  bulls  and  wolves  and 
fed  on  poisoned  food,  yet  he  escaped  without 
injury. 

At  thirty  years  of  age  his  mission  began.  He 
left  his  native  home  and  visited  the  court  of 
Iran.  Being  warned  in  a  vision  he  turned  aside 
into  the  mountains  of  Albordi,  where  he  re- 
ceived many  revelations  and  was  lifted  up  into 
the  highest  heaven,  where  he  beheld  Ormuzd  in 
all  his  glory  encircled  by  a  host  of  angels.  He 
was  there  fed  on  food  as  sweet  as  honey,  which 
opened  his  eyes  so  he  saw  all  that  was  passing 


in  the  heavens  and  on  the  earth.  The  dark- 
ness of  the  future  was  made  to  him  as  day,  and 
he  learned  the  inmost  secrets  of  nature — the 
revolution  of  worlds,  the  influence  of  stars,  the 
greatness  of  the  six  chief  angels  of  God,  the 
felicity  of  the  beatified,  and  the  terrible  condi- 
tion of  the  sinful.  He  descended  into  hell, 
and  there  looked  on  the  evil  one  face  to  face. 
Finally  he  received  from  God  the  divine  gospel 
(Zend-Avesta)  and  by  repeating  a  few  verses  of 
it  he  would  put  his  enemies  to  flight. 

Celestial  fire  was  also  given  him  to  be  kept 
continually  burning,  and  he  at  last  overcame 
his  enemies,  and  the  king  became  a  convert  to 
his  doctrines.  Their  moral  teachings  are  pure 
and  beautiful,  and  his  ideal  of  the  Divine  One 
high  and  just;  but  in  the  course  of  centuries 
his  followers  became  idolatrous  and  the  sacred 
fire  became  more  and  more  an  object  of  vener- 
ation, and  the  sun,  the  loving  emblem  of  their 
sacred  fire,  was  their  object  of  worship.  They 
finally  degenerated  into  what  is  known  as  fire- 
worshipers;  licentiousness  desecrated  the  tem- 
ples and  human  sacrifices  were  at  last  offered. 
This  religion  lasted  for  over  twelve  centuries, 
when  it  was  displaced  by  that  of  the  Koran, 
with  the  exception  of  some  Porsees  or  sun-wor- 
shipers in  India. 

He  says,  speaking  of  overcoming  evil,  "  But 
though  he  has  been  brave  in  battle,  killed  wild 
beasts  and  fought  with  all  manner  of  external 
evils,  if  he  neglect  to  combat  evil  within  him- 
self, he  has  reason  to  fear  that  Ahriman  and 
his  deves  will  seize  him." 

Sosioch. 

Sosioch,  the  Persian  savior,  is  also  born  of  a 
virgin,  and  at  the  end  of  time  he  will  come  as 
a  redeemer  to  regenerate  the  world,  but  he  will 
be  preceded  by  two  prophets,  who  will  come  to 
announce  him  (see  King's  translation  of  the 
"Zend-Avesta"  in  his  "  Gnostics,"  page  9). 
Then  comes  the  general  resurrection,  when  the 
good  will  immediately  enter  into  this  happy 
abode — the  regenerated  earth — and  Ahriman 
and  his  angels  (the  devils)  and  the  wicked  will 
be  purified  by  immersion  in  a  lake  of  molten 
metal.  *  *  *  Henceforward  all  will  enjoy 
unchangeable  happiness  and,  headed  by  Sosi- 
och, ever  sing  the  praises  of  the  Eternal  One." 

The  above  is  a  perfect  repetition  of  Vishnu 


in  his  tenth  avatar,  for  he  will  throw  the  wick- 
ed into  the  inferrud  abodes,  in  which,  after 
purifying  themselves,  they  will  be  pardoned, 
even  those  devils  which  rebelled. 

"This  Sosioch,  or  mediator,  is  much  like 
the  Messiah  of  the  Jews,  and  here  was  the  deep 
and  real  point  of  unison  between  the  two  reli- 
gions, and  this  explains  the  meaning  of  the  star 
which  was  seen  in  the  East  and  which  guided 
the  magi  of  Zoroaster  to  the  cradle  of  Christ." 
(See  "Ten  Great  Religions,"  page  209.) 

Confucius. 

Six  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ 
the  Chinese  philosopher  Confucius,  in  his  book 
"  Lun-Yu,"  chapter  V,  15,  enunciated  the 
Golden  Rule:  "  Master  consists  in  having  an 
invariable  correctness  of  heart;  and  in  doing 
towards  others  as  we  would  that  they  should  do 
to  us." 

And  in  this  noble  character  we  find  the  same 
lofty  spirit  that  rose  above  the  groveling  herd 
of  humanity,  whose  time  is  absorbed  in  getting 
food  to  support  a  starving  body.  Though  he 
has  not  been  deified  he  has  left  a  deep  impres- 
sion on  the  morals  of  his  people,  so  that  he 
is  as  much  an  object  of  veneration  as  a  savior 
who  might  have  died  upon  a  cross  for  a  reli- 
gious idea.  He  has  received  the  title  of  phi- 
losopher, a  term  far  more  appropriate  than  that 
of  savior. 


Mr.  Kersey  Graves,  in  his  work  entitled 
"Sixteen  Crucified  Saviors,"  says  there  have 
been  at  least  thirty-four  avatars  or  god-men. 
The  following  is  a  list: 

1.  Krishna  or  Chrisna,  of  Hindostan. 

2.  Buddha  Sakia,  of  India. 

3.  Salivahana,  of  Bermuda. 

4.  Zulis,  also  Osiris  and  Horus,  of  Egypt. 

5.  Odin,  of  the  Scandinavians. 

6.  Crita,  of  Chaldea. 

7.  Zoroaster  and  Mithra,  of  IVrsi.i. 

8.  Baal  and  Taut,  of  Phoenicia. 

9.  India,  of  Thibet. 

10.  Bali,  of  Afghanistan. 

1 1.  Iao,  of  Nepaul. 

12.  Wittoba,  of  Billongonese. 

13.  Thammuz,  of  Syria. 

14.  Atys,  of  Phrygia. 

15.  Xamotis,  of  Thrace. 

16.  Zoar,  of  the  Bowzes. 

17.  Adad,  of  Assyria. 


59 


i8.  Deva,  Tat,  and  others,  of  Siam. 

19.  Alcides,  of  Thebes. 

20.  Mikado,  of  the  Sintoos. 

21.  Beddru,  of  Japan. 

22.  Hesus,  or  Esos  and  Bremilla,  of  the 
Druids. 

23.  Thor,  son  of  Odin,  of  the  Gauls. 

24.  Cadmus,  of  Greece. 

25.  Hil  and  Teta,  of  Mandaites. 

26.  Gentaut  and  Quaxalcote,  of  Mexico. 

27.  Universal  Monarch,  of  the  Sibyls. 

28.  Tschy,  of  Formosa. 

29.  The  Logos,  of  Plato  (The  Word). 

30.  Holy  One,  of  Xaca. 

31.  To  and  Tien,  of  China. 

32.  Adonis,  of  Greece. 

33.  Ixion  and  Quirinius,  of  Rome. 

34.  Prometheus,  of  Caucasus. 

"  Each  of  these  saviors  was  born  at  mid- 
winter and  their  births  have  excited  the  jeal- 
ousy of  some  kingly  tyrant,  and,  though  them- 
selves of  royal  descent,  were  born  in  caves  or 
mangers,  forced  to  pass  their  infancy  in  obscur- 
ity and  not  unfrequently  cause  the  '  massacre  of 
all  the  innocents'  in  the  district  in  which  they 
are  born.  They  are  all  miracle- workers,  and 
are  generally  connected  with  some  snake  story, 
in  which  is  represented  the  evil  power  which  is 
adverse  to  them.  They  generally  perform 
about  the  same  class  of  miracles,  preach  the 
highest  morals  of  the  age  in  which  they  appear, 
and  are  benevolent  and  act  the  part  of  great 
reformers, and  oppose  the  abuses  of  the  times. 
They  feed  multitudes,  cast  out  devils,  heal  the 
sick;  finally  they  succumb  to  the  powers  of 
evil  that  oppose  them;  die  a  violent  death,  very 
often  by  crucifixion,  descend  to  the  lower  re- 
gions to  rescue  lost  souls,  reascend  to  heaven 
and  thenceforth  become  judges  of  the  dead, 
mediators  and  redeemers  of  men,  who  offer  up 
vicarious  sacrifices  to  God  for  the  sins  of  the 
people." 

"These  good-men  or  god-men,"  says  Mr. 
Graves,  "  all  appear  to  point  to  one  origin  in 
India."  "  How  the  ancient  Mexican  could 
have  conceived  the  idea  of  a  savior,"  says  the 
priest  who  accompanied  Cortez  in  his  conquest 
of  the  country,  "  I  cannot  imagine  unless  the 
devil  gave  them  the  information." 

So  all  nations  have  had  their  saviors;  they 
make  him  comply  with  their  ideal  and  color 
them    black,    red  or  white,  as  may  chance  to 


be   the   color  of  the  race    to  which    they  be- 
long. 

"Many  of  the  ancient  statues  of  the  god 
Buddha  in  India,  have  crisp,  curly  hair,  with 
flat  noses  and  thick  lips;  nor  can  it  be  reasona- 
bly doubted  that  a  race  of  negroes  formerly 
had  pre-eminence  in  India."  It  was  the  opin- 
ion of  Sir  William  Jones  that  a  great  nation  of 
blacks  (not  certainly,  though  possibly,  negroes) 
formerly  possessed  the  dominion  of  Asia,  and 
held  the  seat  of  empire  at  Sidon  (more  proba- 
bly Babylon).  These  must  have  been  the  peo- 
ple called  by  Mr.  Maurice,  Cushites  or  Cuthites, 
described  in  Genesis,  and  the  opinion  that  they 
were  blacks  is  corroborated  by  the  translators 
of  the  Pentateuch,  who  constantly  render  the 
word  Cush  by  Ethiopia.  The  figures  of  the 
aneient  Hindoo  gods  found  in  cave  temples  is 
very  different  from  the  present  .race.  This 
points  back  to  the  remote  age  when  all  man- 
kind were  black,  as  is  claimed  by  some  ethnol- 
ogists. The  color  of  the  first  human  beings 
was  black. 

To  comprehend  these  saviors  we  must  look 
upon  them  as  great  and  good  men  who  breathed 
the  divine  breath  of  inspiration,  who  by  their 
pure  lives  lived  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  world 
and  drew  their  wisdom  from  the  soul  of  the 
universe,  which  is  overflowing  with  truth  and 
goodness.  These  saviors  were  sensitives  and 
were  able  to  connect  themselves  with  it,  and  to 
draw  from  it  some  of  its  secrets  and  divine 
truths. 

Each  wave  of  thought,  whether  of  good  or 
evil,  that  vibrates  from  the  heart  or  mind  goes 
out  by  the  silent  system  of  spiritual  laws,  and 
inflluences  all  minds  within  the  radius  of  its 
control.  The  spiritual  beings  around  us  are 
moved  and  affected.  It  reaches  out  wave  after 
wave,  and  is  met  by  a  response  from  the  spirit- 
ual agencies  that  come  down  from  the  great 
central  mind  (God).  There  is  no  limit  to  the 
light  and  knowledge  that  is  locked  up  in  the 
spirit  world,  if  man  would  place  himself  en 
rapport  with  it.  It  only  requires  that  he  should 
seek  it  earnestly;  it  only  requires  that  he  should 
trust  it;  it  only  requires  that  he  should  submit 
and  have  faith  and  live  in  harmony  with  nature, 
and  do  right  and  good  will  follow  his  earnest 
wishes  and  prayers. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


RELIGION;  ITS  ORIGIN,  GROWTH  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


As  the  savage  slowly  evolved  from  the  ape- 
like man,  his  brain  became  larger  and  more 
developed  in  the  region  of  the  moral  and 
reflective  organs.  His  forehead  assumed  a 
higher  and  broader  proportion,  the  crown  rose 
in  the  region  of  the  organs  of  benevolence  and 
veneration.  Man  alone  has  this  prominence  on 
the  crown  of  the  head;  all  other  animals  are 
deficient.  While  many  animals  possess  a  back 
skull  largely  developed,  man  alone  has  a  fore- 
head and  a  highly  curved  crown,  and  in  the 
lowest  there  is  but  a  slight  elevation.  The 
prominence  in  this  region  of  the  head  is  the 
most  marked  feature  between  the  benevolent, 
pious  and  good  man  and  the  low  and  bad  man. 
Therefore  religion  is  dependent  on  the  brain 
development  in  the  region  of  the  crown  of  the 
skull. 

The  moral  and  intellectual  brain  was  the  last 
to  evolve;  as  man  was  forced  to  think  and  rea- 
son these  organs  expanded  and  by  slow  degrees 
man  became  a  reasoning,  thinking  animal. 
Man's  religion  is  high  or  low  as  he  recedes  or 
approaches  the  lower  animals;  low  and  de- 
graded races  have  a  low  and  degraded  religion, 
and  as  man  ascends  in  the  scale  of  intelligence 
his  religion  becomes  broader  and  more  liberal. 
It  is  the  ignorant  and  narrow-minded  that  con- 
stitute the  over-devout  fanatic  and  the  religions 
tyrant  and  bigot  who  is  always  a  great  stickler 
for  creeds  and  dogmas.  God,  creation  and 
religion  are  things  too  broad,  too  high  and  too 
noble  to  quarrel  about  or  to  burn  men,  women 
and  children  because  they  entertain  other  ideas 
than  those  entertained  by  the  orthodox  believ- 
ers of  the  time. 

The  most  of  the  animals  know  the  difference 
between  day  and  night.  Some  know  the  sea- 
sons of  the  year;    the  squirrel,    for  instance, 

6P 


lays  up  its  store  of  nuts  for  the  long  winter, 
and  many  birds  migrate  south  every  fall.  All 
animated  nature  is  governed  by  instinct,  while 
man  is  governed  by  reason  and  intuition — the 
latter  in  animals  is  called  instinct.  In  man  it 
is  elevated  and  guided  by  reason.  What  we 
call  our  first  impression  is  this  feeling  of  intui- 
tion that  makes  us  religious,  because  it  is  the 
inner  whispering  of  our  nature  that  admonishes 
and  forces  us  to  admit  that  there  is  a  future 
state,  that  the  life  principle  never  dies.  Ani- 
mals may  have  it,  but  they  have  not  developed 
a  reason  or  an  intelligence  so  that  they  can  ex- 
press it,  or  perhaps  feel  it;  yet  they  all  cling  to 
life  and  dread  to  die,  they  know  this  life  but 
not  the  life  to  come. 

All  strange  phenomena  that  man  cannot  un- 
derstand, he  is  ready  to  believe  is  produced  by 
some  supernatural  power;  it  is  a  mystery  and 
he  is  ready  to  ascribe  it  to  some  marvelous 
cause.  The  mind  that  is  ignorant  of  these 
causes  has  a  vague  and  indefinite  idea  of  it; 
therefore  he  is  ready  to  believe  it  is  produced 
by  some  unseen  being,  and  as  he  has  learned 
from  experience  there  are  good  and  bad  results, 
so  is  he  ready  to  ascribe  it  to  good  or  bad 
sprits. 

So  by  degrees  he  became  a  superstitious  ani- 
mal and  was  ready  lo  conclude  that  all  phe- 
nomena that  he  could  not  understand  was  the 
work  of  some  good  or  evil  spirit,  according  to 
the  manner  of  its  visit  and  its  interest  for  good 
or  evil.  This  idea  gave  rise  to  good  and  evil 
spirits,  gods  and  demons;  all  of  which  tended 
to  create  a  religious  feeling  within  his  nature. 
As  he  receded  from  the  beast  this  feeling  was 
increased  by  the  development  of  those  organs 
that  tended  to  make  him  a  social,  moral  being, 
grateful  for  the  blessings  conferred  upon  him  by 


61 


the  bountiful  hand  of  nature,  which  is  ever 
ready  to  assist  him  to  rise. 

No  other  animal  has  a  religion.  It  may  be 
said  to  be  one  of  the  marked  distinctions  that 
place  man  above  the  brute  creation.  No  mon- 
keys or  apes  have  any  reverence  for  a  supreme 
being.  "  Man  is  the  first  animal,"  says  Pro- 
fessor Fowler,  "  that  has  the  organ  of  venera- 
tion," which  he  places  at  the  crown  of  the 
skull.  Some  men  have  little  or  no  reverence, 
and  the  want  of  this  development  makes  them 
atheists  and  disbelievers  in  a  supreme  being 
and  a  future  existence. 

The  moral  and  Religious  organs  are  the  last 
that  develop  in  the  child,  and  over  them  the 
skull  is  last  to  harden.  Man  alone  possesses 
this  craniological  development,  and  the  lower 
the  man  or  the  lower  the  race  the  less  the  brain 
is  developed,  and  the  harder  is  the  infant's 
skiill  on  the  crown  of  the  head,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  negro  child  and  the  inferior  races  and 
apes.  The  phrenologist  and  ethnologist  can 
almost  tell  the  moral  and  intelligent  status  of 
the  man  by  the  shape  of  his  skull  and  to  what 
race  of  people  he  belongs.  All  prehistoric 
skulls  of  man  and  the  lower  order  of  animals 
possess  less  brain  capacity  than  those  ot  more 
recent  periods.  The  mammoth  elephantus  pri- 
mogenitus  of  the  tertiary  period,  though  twice 
as  large  as  that  of  the  modern  elephant,  pos- 
sessed a  less  brain  capacity.  As  the  world  has 
grown  older  animals  have  grown  less  and  their 
brain  larger. 

So  religion  is  a  matter  of  growth  and  devel- 
opment as  well  as  of  muscle  and  brain,  and 
is  dependent  on  the  brain  for  its  existence, 
so  this  will  account  for  the  universal  idea  that 
man  has  of  a  future  state  of  spirits,  angels  and 
gods.  As  his  brain  increases  he  has  a  higher 
standard  for  his  god.  He  first  makes  himself 
an  image  out  of  stone,  mud  or  wood;  then  he 
gives  it  the  form  of  a  man,  which  is  the  highest 
conception  of  a  form  that  he  can  conceive,  and 
here  he  generally  stops  and  becomes  a  man- 
worshiper. 

It  is  this  indwelling  principle  that  forces  up 
the  savage  to  that  of  the  civilized,  monal,  social 
and  intellectual  man,  and  as  these  faculties  are 
developed  man  ascends  and  progresses,  and  the 
higher  the  condition  on  earth  the  higher  will  be 
his   condition   in  spirit  life,  for  it  follows  the 


law  of  progress,  and  as  spirits  progress  so  will 
man,  for  they  are  only  higher  beings  of  intelli- 
|  gence,  and  are  only  freed  from  the  body,  while 
man  is  the  undeveloped  spirit,  chained  to  the 
body,  only  to  be  freed  at  death;  therefore  they 
act  and  react  upon  each  other,  and  spirits  attract 
like  spirits,  whether  in  or  out  of  the  body, 
so  that  spirits  are  attracted  to  earth  and  spirits 
of  mortals  ascend  to  the  spirit  spheres,  when  in 
proper  condition,  and  this  interchange  is  ever 
going  on  between  them,  ascending  and  de- 
scending. The  spirit  of  the  savage  descends 
to  the  savage  on  the  earth  and  the  spirit  of  the 
savage  on  earth  ascends  to  their  spiritual  sphere. 
So  they  learn  of  a  spirit  land,  and  this  is  their 
religion.  So  it  is  with  the  Hindoo  or  with  the 
Christian,  and  whatsoever  the  condition  of  man 
is  on  earth,  he  has  his  spiritual  sphere  and  the 
spirits  from  that  sphere  communicate  with  him, 
for  spirits  that  are  not  in  harmony  cannot  min- 
gle. "  Like  attracts  like,  whether  on  earth  or 
in  the  spiritual  world." 

In  this  way  all  nations  have  their  religion, 
and  they  get  it  through  kindred  spirits,  so  that 
Spiritualism  is  the  origin  of  all  religions,  as  it 
is  the  only  way  man  can  get  a  knowledge  of  the 
spirit  world,  for  all  religions  are  full  of  spirit- 
ism, and  when  carefully  compared  we  are  forced 
to  admit  that  it  has  all  come  through  the  same 
channel,  and  its  standard  depends  on  the  me- 
diums and  the  spirits  that  communicate  and  the 
race  to  which  they  belonged.  Some  men  are 
more  progressed  on  earth  than  some  spirits  who 
have  been  in  the  spirit  land  thousands  of  years. 

Religion,  therefore,  should  be  progressive;  as 
men,  spirits  and  angels  progress,  their  knowledge 
of  nature  and  God  becomes  enlarged  and  their 
intelligence  becomes  expanded,  and  so  should 
religion  become  more  liberal.  While  science 
has  found  out  many  of  the  secrets  of  the  phys- 
ical laws  and  benefited  mankind,  it  has  refused 
to  look  into  the  metaphysical  laws  that  relate  to 
mind,  soul  or  spirit,  and  still  allows  man  to 
bow  down  and  worship  the  religions  of  Moses 
and  Christ,  who  had  no  idea  of  steam  or  elec- 
tricity, but  who  traveled  about  in  dugouts  or 
on  a  camel's  back.  \Yhat  we  want  is  a  religion 
in  keeping  with  the  age,  ancl  the  spirits  demand 
it,  for  they  have  progressed. 

Religion  has  its  origin  in  the  mind,  like  that  of 
thought  and  perception.     As  soon  as  man  had 


62 


evolved  to  such  a  condition  of  intel'igence  that 
he  could  connect  a  train  of  thought  and  had 
language  to  express  his  ideas,  he  became  a  reli- 
gious animal,  and  had  higher  aspirations  than 
his  animal  desires.  He  looks  forth  into  the  fu- 
ture and  believes  that  there  is  something  within 
him  that  will  exist  forever;  that  he  will  live  in 
the  spirit  long  after  the  body  has  decayed  and 
returned  to  the  dust.  This  thought  is  peculiar 
to  man  and  has  tended  to  elevate  him  and  force 
him  to  overcome  his  animal  nature  and  aspire 
to  reach  a  higher  moral  condition.  As  his 
moral  and  intellectual  organs  push  up  the  front 
and  crown  of  the  head  he  becomes  more  hu- 
mane and  intelligent,  he  has  more  respect  for 
the  rights  of  others,  and  he  tries  to  subdue  his 
animal  passions,  which  in  time  he  is  able  to 
place  under  the  control  of  the  moral,  reasoning 
faculties  of  the  mind;  but  to  arrive  at  that  con- 
dition it  costs  every  one  a  struggle.  Some  in- 
herit more  of  the  vicious  animal  nature  than 
others,  while  it  is  natural  for  some  to  be  good, 
for  they  are  born  so;  but  the  great  mass  of  man- 
kind inherits  so  much  of  the  animal  nature  that 
it  takes  a  lifetime  to  get  it  under  control,  and 
it  may  never  be  done. 

A  Hindoo  maxim  says:  "  Brahma  inscribes 
the  destiny  of  every  mortal  on  his  skull,  and  the 
gods  themselves  cannot  avert  it."  That  is, 
everybody  has  their  destiny  in  their  skulls  and 
if  he  has  not  the  moral  and  intellectual  nature 
given  to  him  by  birth,  he  cannot  make  a  wise 
and  moral  man  out  of  himself;  but  that  he  can 
improve  himself  and  his  condition,  and  his 
brain  will  develop  in  that  direction  by  use; 
that  brain  grows  and  expands  like  the  muscles 
of  the  legs  and  arms  by  use;  that  there  was 
never  a  mind,  however  great  or  small,  but  by 
proper  study  and  training  might  have  learned 
more.  It  is  a  bottomless  well  that  can  never 
be  pumped  dry.  The  mind  is  a  battery  con- 
nected with  infinity;  the  more  perfect  the  bat- 
tery the  greater  is  its  capacity  to  draw  from 
anima  mundi  (the  mind  or  soul  of  the  universe), 
which  is  inexhaustible,  it  is  a  part  of  the  deity, 
a  spark,  a  divine  scintilla  that  has  gone  out 
from  the  universal  mind,  which  is  called  God. 
Therefore  all  well  balanced  minds  have  a  high 
regard  for  truth,  justice,  love  and  virtue,  and 
hate  vice. 

This  love  of  virtue   and   truth   struggles  to 


elevate  mankind  and  better  the  condition  of  all; 
it  stands  out  prominently  in  the  patriot  and  the 
philanthropist,  they  who  in  all  ages  of  the  world 
have  struggled  to  overcome  ignorance  and  prej- 
udice. They  have  been  defeated  time  and 
time  again,  but  their  influence  is  felt  for  ages. 
It  will  take  many  generations  to  remove  the 
patriotic  feeling  of  a  Washington  from  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people,  for  all  love  a 
pure,  good  and  patriotic  man,  though  they  may 
not  have  manhood  to  imitate  his  virtues.  Still 
it  all  has  its  effect  on  society  and  slowly  pushes 
up  the  masses  from  their  low,  animal  natures 
and  selfish  desires. 

When  we  examine  the  reHgion  of  the  savage 
and  that  of  civilized  man,  we  see  much  simi- 
larity and  traces  of  one  mingled  in  the  other. 

When  the  Zulu  sacrifices  a  bullock  and  offers 
up  his  prayer  he  says:  "  There  is  your  bullock, 
ye  spirit  of  my  ancestors;  I  pray  for  healthy 
body  that  I  may  live  comfortably,  and  thou 
treat  me  with  mercy,"  (mentioning  the  name  of 
his  dead  ancestor). 

A  Khond,  when  offering  a  sacrifice  to  the 
earth  goddess,  says:  "  By  our  castle,  our  flocks, 
our  pigs  and  our  grain,  we  procured  a  victim 
and  offered  a  sacrifice;  do  you  enrich  us;  let 
our  herds  be  so  numerous  that  they  cannot  be 
housed;  let  children  so  abound  that  the  care  of 
them  shall  be  too  much  for  their  parents. 
*  *  *  We  are  ignorant  of  what  is  good  for 
us;  give  it  to  us,  what  is  best." 

The  Zulu  says  the  spirit  of  a  dead  man  de 
parts  from  his  body  and  becomes  an  ancestral 
ghost.  The  widow  will  tell  how  the  spirit  of 
her  husband  came  back  in  her  sleep  and  up- 
braided her  for  not  taking  care  of  the  children. 
The  son  will  describe  how  his  father's  ghost 
stood  before  him  in  his  dreams. 

The  Mandan  Indian  woman  will  talk  for 
hours  to  her  dead  husband  or  child. 

A  Chinaman  is  bound  to  announce  any  fam- 
ily event,  such  as  a  wedding,  to  the  spirits  of 
his  ancestors.  They  not  only  talk  to  the  ghost 
of  their  dead  kinsfolk,  but  offer  them  food. 

A  Russian  peasant  will  often  put  crumbs  of 
cake  behind  the  pictures  of  the  saints,  belic\ -nig 
that  the  souls  of  their  forefathers  are  creeping 
around  behind  it. 

The  feeding  of  the  dead  is  still  kept  up  in 
Brittany;  on  All  Souls'  Day  they  will  put  cake 


63 


and  sweetmeats  on  the  graves,  and  will  leave 
fragments  on  the  supper  table  all  night  for  the 
souls  of  the  dead  of  the  family,  who  will  come 
to  visit  them.  Flowers  are  now  left  on  the 
graves  as  a  substitute. 

John  Chinaman  believes,  when  he  offers 
a  sacrifice  to  his  dead  ancestors,  of  roast  pig 
and  rice,  that  the  flavor  or  essence  of  the  viands 
ascends  and  the  spirit  of  his  departed  father 
sniffs  up  the  odors  as  they  rise,  which  pleases 
him  and  he  will  shower  blessings  down  on 
his  dutiful  son,  while  he  is  at  liberty  to  take 
home  the  cold  food,  the  gross  and  material  that 
cannot  be  eaten  by  the  immortal  spirit,  but 
which  is  good  for  himself  and  his  family  to 
make  a  feast  upon. 

Classic  literature  abounds  in  instances  where 
the  horse  and  clothing  were  burned  with  the 
owner.  The  burning  of  Patroklas  with  the 
Trojan  captives  and  their  horses  and  hounds,  is 
an  instance;  and  when  he  came  back  to  the 
sleeping  Achilles,  he  tried  to  grasp  him  with 
loving  hands;  but  the  soul,  like  smoke,  flits 
away  below  the  earth. 

Hermotinos,  the  seer,  used  to  go  out  of  his 
body,  until  at  last  coming  back  from  a  spirit 
journey,  found  that  his  wife  had  burned  his 
corpse  on  a  funeral  pile,  and  that  he  had  to 
become  a  bodyless  ghost. 

Herodotus  tells  us  about  Scythian  funerals, 
and  how  Melissa's  ghost  came  back  shivering 
because  her  clothes  had  not  been  burned  with 
her. 

To  the  present  day  the  good  wife  of  the  Hin- 
doo mounts  the  funeral  pile,  believing  that  her 
spirit  will  accompany  her  husband  to  the  other 
world. 

Among  the  ancient  Peruvians  the  wife  of  the 
dead  prince  would  hang  herself  in  order  that 
she  might  continue  in  his  service. 

The  leading  of  the  dead  general's  horse  in 
the  funeral  procession  had  its  origin  in  the  an- 
cient custom  of  killing  the  horse  at  his  grave 
and  burying  it  with  him,  so  that  its  spirit  would 
accompany  him  to  the  spirit  world  and  there  be 
his  war  horse.  As  late  as  in  1 781,  at  Treves, 
when  General  Friedrich  Kasimir  was  buried 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Teutonic  order, 
his  war  horse  was  killed  at  his  grave  and  buried 
with  him.  This  custom  is  still  kept  up  by  the 
savages,  and  the  King  of  Dahomey  decapitates 


the  head  of  a  slave  when  he  wishes  to  send  a- 
message  to  some  departed  friend,  and  a  heca- 
tomb of  wives  and  women  are  slaughtered  on 
his  grave  when  he  dies,  to  accompany  him  to 
the  spirit  land. 

Religion  has  its  origin  in  the  heart;  it  is  a 
part  of  man's  intuitional  nature;  it  comes  from! 
the  spiritual  rather  than  the  rational,  yet  it 
must  have  reason  as  well  as  faith  to  give  it  sup- 
port; it  must  have  works  as  well  as  belief,  and 
belief  cannot  stand  long  with  reason  and  facts* 
The  want  of  positive  facts,  such  as  can  be  de^ 
monstrated  by  a  scientific  test,  is  one  cause  of 
the  growth  of  materialism.  To  some  the  test 
of  Spiritualism  is  sufficient,  but  to  others  it  is 
not.  The  positive  materialist  rejects  that  evi- 
dence and  disturbs  the  subtle  currents  that 
bring  those  facts,  which  are  given  by  a  class  of 
sensitives.  Scientific  minds,  such  as  Profes- 
sors Wallace,  Crookes  and  Zollner,  are  able 
to  appreciate  them;  but  the  cold  materialist, 
like  Tyndal  and  Spencer,  reject  all  spiritual 
manifestations. 

There  are  two  classes  of  religious  persons: 
one  moved  by  love  may  be  called  amo,  the 
other  the  credo.  The  latter  are  interested  only 
in  creeds  and  forms  and  outward  show,  who 
are  narrow-minded  and  fanatical  and  have  in 
all  ages  filled  the  world  with  strife,  war  and  dis- 
sensions. They  are  prompt  to  go  to  church  on 
Sunday,  when  they  appear  very  devout.  They 
may  be  called  Sunday  Christians.  The  atnos, 
on  the  other  hand,  make  religion  consist  of 
doing  good;  they  care  little  about  creeds  and 
dogmas,  and  they  try  to  promote  peace  and 
happiness.  They  use  their  belief  as  a  means, 
while  the  credos  stand  firm  on  it  as  a  finality 
that  is  to  take  them  to  heaven. 

•  Of  the  credo  Morris  says:  "It  is  possible  to 
be  delighted  with  a  doctrine  and  yet  have  no 
just  conception  of  its  practical  bearings;  to 
revel  in  the  thought  of  a  blessing,  and  yet  not 
discern  its  force  as  a  moral  motive;  to  have  an 
intense  admiration  of  the  principles  of  equity 
and  love,  and  yet  be  a  stranger  to  both  the 
theory  and  practice  of  them  in  varied  relations 
of  life  and  the  world." 

The  highest  idea  of  a  religious  man  is  to  do 
good  and  to  have  a  regard  for  what  is  right  and 
just  between  himself  and  his  fellow  man.  The 
observance  of  the  Golden  Rule  is  bis  standard; 


64 


a  just  appreciation  of  the  bountiful  gifts  of  na- 
ture which  are  given  to  him  to  use  and  enjoy. 
Pleasure  in  every  form  is  good  in  itself;  it  is 
the  great  allurement  that  God  has  given  to  his 
children  to  enjoy  and  not  to  abuse. 

All  wisdom  and  philosophy  are  resolved  into 
one  simple  principle:  that  happiness  and  intel- 
ligence depend  upon  the  moral  development  of 
our  religious  nature;  without  it  man  is  but  a 
little  above  a  brute.  An  immoral  genius  is  no 
genius,  simply  a  man  of  talent,  such  as  Lord 
Byron;  but  in  Shakespeare  and  Milton  we  have 
the  highest  moral  purity,  one  capable  of  giving 
a  full  expression  of  the  soul. 

Two  men  may  stand  on  the  same  spot,  to 
one  everything  is  beautiful  and  lovely,  while  to 
the  other  it  may  all  appear  a  barren  waste. 
One  looks  on  the  bright  side  of  the  picture, 
while  the  other  looks  on  the  dark  side  of  it. 
One  has  hope,  the  other  despair;  one  is  an  op- 
timist, the  other  a  pessimist,  who  sees  evil  in 
everything,  "  that  this  is  a  vile  world  of  sin 
and  sorrow." 

Light  and  heat  come  together  in  the  sun- 
beam, and  so  does  law  with  virtue  of  desire 
and  deed.  In  becoming  religious  one  loses 
nothing  but  often  gains  when  least  it  is  expect- 
ed. No  one  can  perceive  its  beauties  unless  his 
heart  is  morally  good.  "  To  know  nature  then, 
one  must  be  true  to  nature.  To  be  true  to  na- 
ture then,  one  must  live  looking  forever  to  the 
mighty  spirit  who  presides.  Nature  has  been 
said  to  have  an  exhaustless  meaning,  but  it  is  a 
meaning  to  be  rightly  seen  and  heard  only  by 
him  who  strives  ceaselessly  and  prayerfully  to 
become  all  that  the  divine  image  and  likeness 
is  capable  of  becoming,  which  is  in  fact  to  be- 
come humane  and  religious,  and  as  we  become 
more  humane  the  world  becomes  to  us  more  di- 
vine and  man  a  better  Christian." 

Religion  may  be  divided  into  two  parts;  that 
which  relates  to  its  historical  forms  is  called 
comparative  theology;  the  other  is  that  which 
explains  the  conditions  under  which,  in  the 
highest  or  lowest  form  it  is  possible,  is  called 
theoretic  theology. 

Comparative  theology  is  like  that  of  compar- 
ative philology  and  can  be  traced  back  to  the 
early  races  of  mankind  in  Asia.  It  shows  that 
it  has  taken  many  forms  and  has  much  to  do  in 
shaping  the  public  mind,  laws  and  institutions 


of  every  country,  and  all  religions  may  be  said 
to  be  the  groundwork  of  every  government  ex- 
cept that  of  the  United  States,  in  which  a  new 
departure  was  taken  and  God  and  religion  were 
for  the  first  time  left  out. 

There  are  two  modes  by  which  man  gets  his 
religious  knowledge:  natural  and  revealed. 
The  natural  is  the  knowledge  man  gets  by  the 
light  of  nature  and  reason;  the  revealed  religion 
is  that  which  comes  by  revelations  from  God, 
angels  and  spirits,  and  the  inspiration  of  pro- 
phets, seers  and  mediums.  It  manifested  itself 
to  Moses  in  the  burning  bush,  and  he  heard  it 
on  Mount  Sinai.  Therefore  all  religious  knowl- 
edge we  have  on  this  subject  is  through  revela- 
tion, and  this  revelation  has  been  made  to  man 
through  the  mediumship  of  some  person  who 
has  been  inspired  or  who  has  held  converse 
with  angels  or  spirits.  The  record  of  these 
facts  are  called  a  Bible  in  the  Christian  reli- 
gion; with  the  Hindoos  it  is  called  the  Vedas; 
with  the  sun-worshippers  the  Zend-Avesta;  with 
the  Mohammedans  the  Koran. 

"  True  religion  is  that  which  embraces  the 
universe,  reveals  perfect  justice  to  all,  breathes 
boundless  goodness,  fills  the  reason  with  lights 
the  affection  with  love,  the  sorrowing  with  co?i- 
sola/ion,  the  down-trodden  with  courage,  and 
the  despairing  with  the  golden  beams  of  eternal 
hope  and  happiness.  It  is  responsive  to  every 
real  human  need,  the  infinite  sources  of  love 
and  wisdom  perpetually  flow  into  and  flood  the 
individual  receptive  spirit;  and  the  innumera- 
ble host  of  the  heavenly  spheres  freely  shower 
their  fondest  affections  and  their  most  resplend- 
ent thoughts  into  the  common  life  of  the  terres- 
trial millions  of  human  beings.  There  is  no 
one  utterly  forsaken,  all  are  a  part  of  the  whole 
in  the  great  plan  of  creation;  no  bleeding  heart 
that  either  lives  or  dies  wholly  alone  and  un- 
known; there  are  ministering  spirits  and  guar- 
dian angels  watching  over  every  human  being; 
no  unrequited  life  in  this  universe  of  love;  no 
possible  estrangement  from  the  redemptive 
power  of  the  universal  presence." 

All  humanity  moves  within  the  orbit  of  the 
spiritual  Sun  according  to  certain  and  fixed 
laws  of  the  spirit  world.  There  is  no  gravita- 
tion equal  or  superior  to  the  attraction  of  heav- 
en, while  our  feet  and  our  animal  nature  (lint; 
to   the  earth,  yet  our  heads  point  towards  the 


(JD 


heavens.  That  our  bodies  will  return  to  the 
earth  from  whence  they  came  and  the  self,  the 
ego,  the  soul,  will  ascend  to  the  mansion  in  the 
skies,  where  it  will  follow  the  laws  of  progress 
and  grow  wiser,  purer  and  better  until  it  reaches 
the  divine  sensorium  whence  it  came. 

The  supreme  Power  whom  we  reverence  is 
the  boundless  and  endless  one — the  grand 
"Central  Spiritual  Sun" — by  whose  attributes 
and  the  visible  effects  of  whose  inaudible  will 
we  are  surrounded — the  God  of  the  ancients 
and  the  God  of  modern  seers.  His  nature  can 
be  studied  only  in  the  worlds  called  forth  by 
his  mighty  fiat.  His  revelation  is  traced  with 
His  own  finger  in  the  rocks,  in  imperishable  fig- 
ures upon  the  face  of  the  cosmos,  and  the  same 
forces  are  at  work  and  the  same  laws  that  gov- 
ern matter  are  now  in  operation  as  were  in  the 
days  of  Moses,  David  and  Jesus  Christ  and 
the  apostles.  It  is  the  only  infallible  gospel 
we  can  recognize.  The  earth  is  God's  Bible, 
for  it  His  is  work,  and  He  has  written  on  the 
rocks  characters  that  the  geologist  can  read. 
"Therefore,"  says  Agassiz,  "to  understand 
God  we  must  study  His  works  in  nature,  and 
the  more  we  learn  of  it  the  more  we  will  know 
of  Him." 

The  materialist  says  there  is  no  God  except 
the  gray  matter  in  our  brain,  yet  there  is  an 
inward  whispering  that  says  "  No."  The  ego, 
which  lives  and  thinks  and  feels  independently 
of  us  in  our  mortal  casket,  does  more  than  be- 
lieve; it  knoivs  that  there  exists  a  God  in  nature, 
for  the  sole  and  invincible  Artificer  of  all  lives 
in  us,  as  we  live  in  Him.  No  dogmatic  faith 
or  exact  science  is  able  to  uproot  that  intui- 
tional feeling  inherent  in  man,  when  he  has 
once  fully  realized  it  in  himself.  Human  na- 
ture is  like  universal  nature  in  its  abhorrence  of 
a  vacuum.  It  feels  an  immortal  yearning  for  a 
supreme  power;  without  a  God  the  cosmos 
would  seem  like  a  soulless  corpse.  Being  for- 
bidden to  search  for  Him  where  alone  His 
traces  would  be  found,  man  has  filled  the  ach- 
ing void  with  a  personal  God,  whom  his  spirit- 
ual teachers  have  created  for  him  to  worship 
out  of  the  heathen  myths. 

Religion  places  the  human  soul  in  the  pres- 
ence of  its  highest  ideal;  it  lifts  it  above  the 
level   of  ordinary   goodness   and    produces,  at 


least,  a  yearning  after  a  higher  and  better  life — 
a  life  in  the  light  of  God. 

Religion  is  that  which  distinguishes  man 
from  the  animals.  We  do  not  mean  the  Chris- 
tian or  Jewish  religions  only,  but  all  religions — 
a  faculty  which,  in  spite  of  sense  or  reason,  en- 
ables man  to  apprehend  the  Infinite,  under  any 
varying  disguises.  For  all  religions  have  in 
them  a  spark  of  good.  Without  this  faculty, 
there  could  be  no  controlling  of  governing 
man;  for  all  religions  are  nothing  but  the  groan- 
ing of  the  spirit,  struggling  and  longing  after  the 
Infinite. 

This  yearning  after  immortality  has,  in  all 
ages  of  the  world,  made  him  a  slave  to  priests 
and  fanatics,  to  be  humbugged  and  imposed 
upon,  instead  of  being  his  own  priest  and  con- 
sulting the  inner  prompting  of  his  better  nature. 
He  has  suffered  others  to  think  for  him  and 
intercede  in  his  behalf. 

All  men  are  mediumistic,  if  they  would  only 
consult  and  listen  to  their  better  promptings, 
which  are  ever  whispering  in  their  ears  what  is 
right  and  what  is  wrong.  But,  blinded  by  prej- 
udice and  superstition,  they  shut  their  ears  to 
those  inward  whisperings,  and  follows  the 
teachings  of  some  selfish,  scheming  man,  who, 
to  furthei  his  ends  and  ambition,  has,  in  all 
ages  of  the  world,  seized  upon  this  religious 
sentiment  in  man  to  rule,  control  and  govern 
him. 

"The  king  is  at  the  head  of  state  and 
church.  The  king  never  dies  and  the  church 
never  does  wrong."  This  idea  has  kept  the 
masses  in  slavery  and  ignorance.  They  have 
been  taught  to  obey  and  pay  the  priest  to  pray 
for  them.  The  king  and  the  priest  have  preyed 
upon  their  earnings,  and  it  was  to  their  interest 
to  keep  them  in  ignorance,  so  they  could  con- 
tinue to  prey  upon  them.  "This  unnatural 
and  unjust  religion,"  says  Draper,  "  has  retard- 
ed civilization  a  thousand  years."  They  have 
used  it  to  control  man  and  govern  him  to  suit 
their  interest  and  not  his.  The  moment  a  man 
begins  to  investigate  he  becomes  skeptical,  and 
then  he  is  in  a  fair  way  to  learn  the  truth  and 
think  for  himself,  and  worship  God  in  accord- 
ance to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience. 

Religion  has  led  to  endless  wars  that  have 
devastated  whole  countries,  and  reduced  the 
inhabitants    to   the   condition   of  slaves,    and 


r><; 


forced  them  to  accept  the  religion  of  some  am- 
bitious general,  or  fanatical  priest,  who  had  no 
Other  idea  of  God  than  that  which  his  narrow, 
bigoted  brain  would  allow  him  to  create.  So 
they  have  made  gods  and  religions  to  suit  their 
fancy,  and  not  in  accordance  with  the  grand 
idea  and  plan  of  nature  and  creation.  Said  a 
native  to  a  missionary: 

"  Your  soldiers  seduce  our  women.  *  *  * 
You  come  to  rob  us  of  our  land,  pillage  the 
country  and  make  war  upon  us,  and  you  wish 
to  force  your  God  upon  us,  saying  that  He  for- 
bids robbery,  pillage  and  war.  You  are  white 
on  one  side,  and  black  on  the  other,  and  if  we 
were  to  cross  the  river,  it  would  not  be  us  that 
the  devil  would  take." 

Among  Christians  there  is  nothing  but  dis- 
sensions— a  contest  about  creeds  and  ceremo- 
nies; they  are  intolerant  and  tyrannical  if  left 
to  them  to  govern  man  and  control  his  con- 
science. Each  claims  to  be  right  and  all  oth- 
ers wrong.  Its  dogmas  are  orthodox,  but  all 
other  churches  are  heterodox,  and  are  ready  to 
go  to  war  and  cut  each  other's  throats  about 
something  in  which  all  may  be  wrong  or  know 
nothing  about. 

There  is  nothing  more  incomprehensible  to 
the  heathen  than  the  trinity — Father,  Son  and 
Holy  Ghost,  and  these  three  in  one;  all  equal  in 
the  God-head — and  the  divinity  of  Christ;  that 
he  was  born  of  a  woman  and  still  he  was  God. 
There  is  but  one  God  and  yet  there  are  three; 
how  can  this  be  ?  Some  worship  the  Father, 
some  the  Son,  and  others  the  virgin  Mary,  who 
was  the  mother. 

The  abstract  fictions  of  antiquity,  which  for 
ages  had  filled  the  popular  fancy  with  but  flick- 
ering shadows  and  uncertain  images,  have  in 
Christianity  assumed  the  shapes  of  real  person- 
ages and  become  accomplished  facts.  Alle- 
gory, metamorphosed,  becomes  sacred  history, 
and  pagan  myth  is  taught  to  the  people  as  a 
revealed  narrative  of  God's  intercourse  with  his 
chosen  people,  while  thousands  of  books,  con- 
taining as  much  sacred  history  and  as  strong 
evidence  that  they  were  written  by  divine  hands, 
have  been  committed  to  the  flames  and  their 
believers  have  been  put  to  the  torture. 

The  theology  of  Christendom  has  been 
rubbed  threadbare  by  the  investigations  of 
science  and  the  research  of  the  philologist  and 


the  archaeologist.  It  is  found  to  be,  on  the 
whole,  subversive,  rather  than  progressive,  of 
spirituality  and  good  morals.  Instead  of  ex- 
panding the  rule  of  divine  law  and  justice,  it 
leaves  us  in  doubt  and  dread  of  damnation.  It 
fills  the  mind  with  doubt  as  to  what  course  to 
pursue.  It  makes  cowards  of  all;  every  one 
dreads  death,  instead  of  looking  on  it  as  a 
transition  into  a  higher  sphere  and  a  better  ex- 
istence. 

The  Jewish  religion  teaches  us  of  an  an- 
gry and  revengeful  God  (which  is  an  absurdity), 
who  will  condemn  the  spirits  of  the  wicked  to 
hell-fire  and  the  devil,  there  to  be  roasted  for- 
ever. That  part  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  that 
says,  "  Dead  us  not  into  temptation,"  is  an  in- 
sult to  God  and  common  sense.  The  absurd- 
ity of  the  thought  that  God,  the  embodiment  of 
goodness  and  purity,  would  or  could,  for  a  mo- 
ment, entertain  the  idea  of  leading  any  mortal 
into  temptation  of  any  kind  !  No,  this  part  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer  is  directed  to  Satan,  the  tute- 
lar genius  who  hardened  the  heart  of  Pharaoh, 
put  an  evil  spirit  in  Saul,  sent  lying  messengers 
to  the  prophets  and  tempted  David  to  sin;  such 
is  the  God  of  Israel,  as  described  in  the  Bible. 

The  various  religions  are  like  the  pure  while 
ray,  broken  up  and  scattered  by  the  prism. 
Red,  which  represents  blood,  is  the  stronger; 
it  has  been  the  most  prominent  in  all  the  West- 
ern religions;  it  has  caused  more  wars  and 
bloodshed  than  any  other,  while  that  taught  by 
the  Brahmins  and  the  Buddhist  has  been  like 
that  of  the  blue  rays;  it  is  the  slowest  and  it 
lingers  'longest  in  the  atmosphere,  which  gives 
it  the  cerulean  hue.  So  each  ray  of  the  spec- 
trum, by  imperceptible  shadings,  merges  into 
each  other,  and  so  all  the  great  theologies  that 
have  appeared  at  different  times,  have  diverged 
from  each  other  until  they  form  thousands  of 
religious  creeds  and  sects,  when  all  combined 
represent  only  one  Eternal  Truth. 

"  Truly,"  says  Bishop  Kidder,  "  were  a  wise 
man  to  choose  his  religion  from  those  who  pro- 
fess it,  perhaps  Christianity  would  be  the  last 
religion  he  would  choose,  for  they  preach  one 
thing  and  practice  another."  Their  ministers 
claim  to  be  followers  of  the  disciples,  but  in  no 
instance  do  they  do  as  the  disciples  did,  "Care 
not  for  food  or  raiment  or  gold  or  wealth;  heal 
the  sick  or  console  the  distressed;"  but  always 


67 


keep  an  eye  to  the  good  things  of  this  earth 
and  a  fat  parsonage.  They  tell  the  people  the 
days  of  miracles  are  closed,  and  that  the  door 
to  heaven  is  shut,  to  be  entered  only  through 
and  by  the  church;  that  man  must  look  to  Jesus 
and  the  cross  and  the  virgin  Mary,  and  not  to 
God  himself.  It  is  evident  that  they  have  be- 
come degenerate  and  do  not  understand  the 
true  workings  of  the  spirit  through  the  occult 
powers  that  are  ever  ready  to  be  invoked  to 
assist  and  instruct  man  how  to  become  wiser 
and  better.  In  their  ignorance  they  have  dei- 
fied a  great  medium,  who  understood  these 
forces  and  used  them  to  reform  man  and  purify 
the  church.  But  instead  of  following  out  his 
directions  they  have  used  his  name  to  mislead 
mankind,  and  they  have  so  clouded  man's  in- 
tellect with  dogmas  that  it  has  caused  him  to 
lose  sight  of  his  individual  relation  and  account- 
ability to  God. 

The  Christian  religion  is  repulsive  to  the 
Chinese,  because  Jesus  had  so  little  respect  for 
his  father  and  mother,  and  his  disrespect  for 
the  dead,  when  he  said  to  the  young  man,  "Let 
the  dead  bury  the  dead." 

As  a  Khan  said  to  Marco  Polo:  "  You  see 
the  Christians  are  ignorant.  They  can't  get 
their  gods  to  do  anything;  while  these  idolaters 
can  get  their  gods  to  do  anything  that  is  wanted 
of  them,  insomuch,  that  when  I  sit  at  table  the 
cups  from  the  middle  of  the  hall  come  to  me 
filled  with  wine  or  other  liquor,  without  being 
touched  by  anybody,  and  I  drink  from  them. 
They  control  storms,  causing  them  to  pass  in 
whatever  direction  is  indicated  they  should 
take,  and  do  many  other  marvels;  while,  as 
you  know,  their  idols  speak,  and  give  them 
predictions  on  whatever  subjects  are  chosen, 
which  you  Christians  cannot  do.  Why  should 
we  change  our  religion  for  one  that  is  infe- 
rior? " 

Why  should  the  Christian  sneer  at  the  mirac- 
ulous power  of  fakir  adepts  and  mediums, 
when  they  only  do  what  prophets  and  Christ 
and  his  apostles  did — unbolt  prison  doors,  and 
strike  sinners  blind  ?  Why  should  the  devout 
Catholic  turn  from  the  performances  of  medi- 
ums and  adepts,  when  their  priest  claims  to  do 
the  same  thing,  by  making  the  coagulated  blood 
of  a  martyred  saint  boil  and  fume  in  a  crystal 
bottle.     A  Hindoo   priest   can    plunge  an  arm 


into  the  heart  of  his  idol  and  out  gushes  a  stream 
of  blood,  and  he  can  change  water  into  blood. 
Indeed,  there  is  no  difference.  Both  have  the 
same  power;  both  do  or  practice  deception  on 
the  people;  one  is  no  better  than  the  other; 
both  are  idol-worshipers,  and  of  those  mystic 
systems  which  precede  by  far  the  Brahmanism 
and  even  the  primitive  monotheism  of  ancient 
Chaldea. 

The  difference  between  ancient  and  modern 
religion  is  only  the  difference  in  their  civiliza- 
tion. The  Christian  religion  is  but  a  similar 
force  like  all  others,  and  equal  in  its  line  of 
development.  Civilization  is  not  dependent  on 
any  form  of  religion,  but  is  traceable  to  a  great 
variety  of  influences;  among  which  that  of  the 
mingling  of  races  is  most  prominent,  which 
infuses  more  energy  and  expands  the  races, 
while  freedom  and  science  are  the  motive  pow- 
ers which -the  church  has  often  crushed  or  re- 
tarded. The  leaf  needs  no  miracle  to  produce 
a  flower,  nor  does  the  child  become  a  man 
through  the  agency  of  any  miraculous  power; 
it  is  but  the  result  of  natural  growth  and  devel- 
opment. 

Meanwhile,  we  must  remember  the  direct  ef- 
fects of  the  revealed  mystery.  The  only  way 
the  priest  of  old  could  impress  the  masses  with 
the  belief  in  the  divine  power  was  by  the  per- 
forming of  "  miracles,"  by  the  animation  of 
matter,  by  their  will-power,  which  convinced 
the  skeptical  mind  that  there  was  an  invisible 
power  that  was  capable  of  moving  matter. 
And  to  teach  them  that  there  was  an  omnipo- 
tent and  omnipresent  power,  a  great  first  cause 
that  governed  all  things  for  a  fixed  purpose, 
with  which  they  had  an  influence. 

The  world  needs  no  sectarian  church,  whether 
of  Buddha,  Jesus,  Mahomet,  Sweden borg,  Cal- 
vin or  any  other.  There  being  but  one  truth, 
man  requires  but  one  church — knoivledge — the 
temple  of  God  within,  walled  in  by  matter,  but 
penetrable  by  any  who  wish  to  find  the  way. 
"  The  pure  in  heart  see  God"  Nature  is  God's 
temple,  and  aspiration  is  his  worship;  and  to 
understand  these  laws,  is  to  make  gods  of  our- 
selves, for  each  and  every  man  has,  within  him, 
a  spark,  which,  if  cultivated  by  living  a  pure, 
good  life,  will  always  keep  him  in  the  right 
path,  and,  finally,  make  him  a  demi-god,  for  all 
angels  and  arch-angels  have  followed  the  law  of 


68 


evolution  and  progress,  and  once  were  dwell- 
ers in  the  flesh. 

Man  needs  no  savior  or  priest  to  direct  him 
to  heaven,  if  he  will  follow  the  inner  prompt- 
ings of  his  better  nature.  He  will  find  his  way, 
for  death  is  as  much  a  fixed  law  as  that  of 
birth,  and  is  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  na- 
ture; and  the  same  intelligence  and  force  that 
brought  him  into  existence,  will  carry  him 
through  the  ordeal  of  death,  and  if  he  has  lived 
n  harmony  with  these  laws,  he  has  nothing  to 
fear,  whether  he  be  pagan  or  Christian. 

All  progress  is  natural,  and  is  divine.  It 
proceeds  by  laws  inherent  and  immanent  in 
humanity.  Laws  whose  absoluteness  affirm 
infinite  mind,  as  implicated  in  this  finite  ad- 
vance up  to  mind.  The  laws  that  govern  this 
onward  movement  are  inspiration — drawn 
from  the  infinite  mind,  whether  it  be  pagan  or 
Christian,  whether  it  believes  in  Christ  or 
Buddha. 

The  religion  of  the  savage  is  not  the  religion 
of  the  civilized  man.  One  is  that  of  fear,  super- 
stition and  ignorance,  a  fetishism;  while 
the  other  should  be  that  of  science,  of  truth 
and  knowledge,  of  reason  and  love.  For  the 
growing  belief  that  the  stability  of  law  is  the 
guarantee  of  universal  good;  or,  to  translate  it 
into  the  language  of  the  spirit,  that  law  means 
love,  is  the  sign  of  love  in  its  practical  and 
universal  sense,  is  itself  becoming   the   all-ab- 


sorbing calculus,  and  all-analyzing  prism  of  our 
spiritual  astronomy — the  preserver,  the  divine 
interpreter  of  law.  The  stoic,  Aurelius,  said: 
"  Whatever  happens  to  us  is  from  nature, 
because  that  only  can  happen  by  nature  which 
is  suitable,  and  it  is  enough  to  remember  that 
law  rules  all." 

The  world  of  religion  is  broader  than  Chris- 
tendom has  apprehended,  and  it  is  destined  to 
widen  in  the  sight  of  man  as  he  progresses  in 
knowledge.  The  opening  of  China  to  the 
Western  nations,  and  their  immigration  and 
labor,  are  events  as  momentous  to  the  religious 
as  to  the  commercial  and  political  world.  India 
and  China  are  full  of  "lights,"  of  which  the 
Christian  has  never  dreamed,  that  have  been 
kept  in  the  dark  and  denounced  as  the  work  of 
sorcery  and  jugglery. 

Let  us  rest  assured  that  liberty,  democracy, 
labor,  reform,  popular  progress,  are  not  empty 
words;  they  will  reach  beyond  the  assertion  of 
exclusive  rights  or  selfish  claims  into  full  recog- 
nition of  universal  duties :  that  liberty  is  not  to 
stop  in  license,  nor  democracy  in  greed 
and  aggression,  nor  progress  to  be  earned 
through  bloody  retribution  alone;  civilization 
will  not  be  retarded  in  its  onward  march  by  the 
exposure  of  the  falsehood  of  any  creed  or 
church,  for  there  is  nothing  can  stay  the  hand 
of  the  Infinite. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


ANCESTRAL  WORSHIP  OF  THE  ANCIENT  ARYANS. 


The  science  of  religion  is  to  sift  and  classify 
it,  and  thus  try  to  discover  the  necessary  ante- 
cedents of  all  faith  and  the  laws  which  govern 
the  growth  and  decay  of  human  religion,  and 
the  goal  to  which  all  religion  tends.  Whether 
there  ever  can  be  one  perfect  universal  religion 
is  a  question  as  difficult  to  answer  as  whether 
there  ever  can  be  one  perfect  universal  lan- 
guage. 

A  perfect  religion,  like  a  perfect  language,  is 
something  beyond  all  conception.  All  reli- 
gions, like  languages,  must  have  passed  through 
many  changes.  Religion  is  a  thing  of  growth 
and  development;  it  has  its  roots  deep  down 
in  our  spiritual  nature,  which  are  ever  urging  us 
on  to  a  higher  state,  to  reach  out  and  grasp  the 
infinite  and  to  comprehend  our  creator. 

The  lime  for  a  belief  in  the  supernatural  in 
religion  is  past;  that  faith  is  a  hallucination 
or  an  infantile  disease;  that  all  the  stories  told 
about  the  gods  and  saviors  have  at  last  been 
found  out  and  exploded;  that  there  is  no  possi- 
ble knowledge  except  that  which  comes  to  us 
through  our  senses;  that  we  must  be  satisfied 
with  facts  and  finite  things  that  are  made  mani- 
fest to  us. 

It  is  our  ignorance  of  these  laws  that  makes 
us  superstitious  and  creates  a  belief  in  the  su- 
pernatural. As  we  advance  in  the  light  of 
knowledge  the  mysterious  recedes  in  the  dark- 
ness of  ignorance. 

The  Archaic  man  supposed  that  every  force 
to  which  his  attention  was  directed  was  similar 
to  that  which  he  recognized  in  himself,  and 
either  was,  or  implied,  a  like  being.  He  was 
conscious,  or  thought  he  was  conscious,  that  he 
(himself)  consisted  of  a  soul  and  a  body — of 
something  substantial  and  of  something  insub- 


stantial. And  he  concluded  that,  in  like  man- 
ner, there  were  souls  in  all  things.  He  saw 
that  there  were  forces  in  nature  more  powerful 
than  he  and  which  he  could  not  control,  and 
were  capable  of  doing  him  good  or  evil;  there- 
fore they  appeared  to  him  fit  objects  of  suppli- 
cation— beings  whose  favor  he  might  procure 
or  whose  wrath  he  might  avert  by  offerings, 
prayer  and  supplication.  Hence  arose  the 
whole  system  of  manes-worship,  and  all  the 
myths  of  the  sun  and  of  the  moon;  of  the 
dawn,  the  twilight  and  the  night;  of  the  wind 
and  the  storm;  of  the  earth  and  sea  and  sky. 

"  The  uncultivated  man,  indeed,  worshiped 
every  force"  (see  "Village  Communities") 
"  that  assists  or  obstructs  him  in  his  daily  work. 
That  worship  is  his  recognition  of  the  existence 
of  such  a  force  and  of  its  connection,  or,  at 
least,  its  possible  connection,  with  his  own  wel- 
fare. It  was  by  this  method  he  accounts  for 
all  phenomena  which  have  attracted  his  atten- 
tion, which  his  unlettered  brain  could  not  ex- 
plain. In  other  words,  mythology  was  the 
natural  ph'ilosophy  of  the  early  world,  and  out 
of  which  has  evolved  the  multiplicity  of  heathen 
gods  and  goddesses,  who  were  special  divini- 
ties to  assist  and  direct  nature,  which  presided 
over  birth,  life,  death,  dreams,  trances  and 
visions." 

From  these  facts  it  was  almost  inevitable 
that  the  untrained  intellect  should  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  disembodied  spirits  bore  an 
important  part  in  the  economy  of  nature.  The 
forces  that  assisted  him  were  good,  those  that 
obstructed  him  were  bad.  He  was  forced  to 
acknowledge  the -presence  of  these  forces,  and 
they  produced  all  the  changes  and  phenomena 
that  came  under  his  observation,  and  the  only 

69 


70 


way  he  could  explain  them  was  to  ascribe  them 
to  some  supernatural  power. 

Manes-worship,  therefore,  stands  at  the  base 
of  mythology.  Man  sought  to  conciliate  the 
spirits  of  their  distinguished  heroes  and  states- 
men. Thus  the  Thebans  and  Athenians  dis- 
puted over  the  body  of  (Edipus,  and  the  Ar- 
gives  and  Trojans  fought  for  the  bones  of  Ores- 
tes. The  Acanthians  offered  sacrifice  to  the 
gigantic  Persian  engineer  who  died  in  their 
midst,  and  the  people  of  Amphipolis  to  the 
gallant  Brasidas.  The  Hindoo  of  the  present 
day  adores  the  manes  of  the  prominent  English 
officials  who  happen  to  be  buried  in  their  vil- 
lages. 

So  the  Archaic  mind  was  governed  by  a  vast 
variety  of  gods,  acting  each  on  his  own  princi- 
ples, and  each  seeking  the  exclusive  interest  of 
his  worshipers.  Every  assembly  of  men  had 
their  own  god  and  regarded  that  god  as  their 
exclusive  property.  Each  nation  had  its  pe- 
culiar tutelar  deity  and  pantheon  of  gods. 

When  primitive  man  had  arrived  at  a  stage  of 
intellectual  development  so  that  he  had  a  con- 
ception of  a  divine  being — one  greater  and 
higher  than  himself — he  had  accomblished 
much.  How  he  arrived  at  that  conclusion  the 
most  learned  differ. 

One  of  the  first  impulses  to  religion  proceed- 
ed from  an  incipient  perception  of  the  infinite 
pressing  upon  man  through  the  great  phenom- 
ena of  nature,  and  not  from  sentiments  of  sur- 
prise or  fear,  called  forth  by  such  finite  things 
as  shells,  stones,  bones,  trees  or  animals;  that 
is  to  say,  by  fetishes. 

Though  the  prehistoric  and  quaternary  man 
may  and  did  use  such  things,  they  were  but 
rude  emblems  and  symbols  to  give  ah  expres- 
sion to  the  belief  that  therewas  an  invisible 
power  which  controlled  and  could  render  them 
assistance  if  it  saw  proper  to  so  act;  while 
others  claim  that  it  came  from  ancestral  wor- 
ship of  the  images  of  the  departed  dead  that 
they  saw  in  their  dreams,  whom  they  worked 
up  into  ghosts  and  spirits,  who  still  lived  in  the 
air  and  could  render  them  assistance,  and  that 
it  was  the  natural  affection  of  the  parent  that 
drew  him  near  to  his  children,  and  who  was 
ever  ready  to  assist  them  in  their  troubles.  So 
the  son  looked  upon  his  dead  father  as  a  kind 
of  god   to  whom   he  owed  his  existence.     In 


childhood  he  looked  up  to  him  for  protection 
and  support,  and  when  he  had  grown  into  man- 
hood these  ideas  still  lingered  in  his  memory, 
and  the  love  and  affection  he  had  for  him  while 
living  ripened  at  his  death  into  a  feeling  of 
reverence  that  is  closely  allied  to  that  of  ven- 
eration, so  to  propitiate  his  spirit  he  is  led  to 
do  homage  to  his  grave  and  confer  on  him 
divine  rights;  indeed,  the  ancient  Aryan  be- 
lieved that  it  was  necessary  to  make  sacrifices 
on  his  father's  tomb,  and  the  Chinese  still  fol- 
low this  kind  of  worship. 

Periodically  they  have  a  feast  of  the  dead. 
While  the  odor  rises  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the 
departed  spirits  of  the  dead,  they  are  practical 
enough  to  think  that  it  does  not  injure  the  ma- 
terial carcass  of  the  hog  to  take  it  home  in  the 
evening  and  make  a  feast  for  the  mortal  man. 
While  the  more  cultivated  Aryan  does  not  offer 
the  viands  to  his  dead,  there  still  lingers  the 
idea  of  strewing  flowers  over  the  graves  of  their 
departed  loved  ones. 

The  Chinese  bride  at  the  present  day  wor- 
ships in  company  with  her  husband  his  an- 
cestors; so  the  Aryan  bride  thousands  of  years 
ago  did  homage  to  the  gods  of  the  house  to 
which  she  was  introduced,  and  entered  into 
formal  communion  with  them.  She  was  pre- 
sented upon  her  entrance  into  the  house  with 
the  holy  fire  and  lustral  water,  and  partook 
along  with  her  husband  in  the  presence  of  the 
lares  of  the  symbolic  meal.  She  was  robed  in 
white,  the  emblem  of  purity  and  the  robe  of  a 
priestess.  She  ceased  to  be  a  member  of  her 
father's  house  and  to  worship  her  father's  gods, 
but  became  the  priestess  to  her  adopted  house 
spirit.  Hence  comes  the  modern  custom  of 
robing  the  bride  in  white,  and  the  eating  of  the 
wedding  cake  and  the  drinking  of  the  wine, 
that  the  ancient  Aryan  and  his  bride  of- 
fered up  to  the  house  spirit  of  his  departed 
ancestors. 

The  ancient  Aryans  worshiped  dead  ances- 
tors long  before  they  emigrated  from  the  plains 
of  Bokhara,  in  Central  Asia,  into  Europe,  be- 
fore they  had  a  Zeus,  Jupiter  or  Indra.  The 
common  progenitors  of  our  race  did  homage  to 
the  dwellers  in  the  spirit  world,  and  above  all, 
offered  their  daily  orisons  to  their  own  fathers 
upon  the  holy  hearth  and  at  the  commence- 
ment  of  every  meal,  which    was,  in  effect,  a 


71 


sacrifice.  Libations  and  offerings  were  made 
as  tokens  and  pledges  of  honor  and  affection  to 
their  departed  ancestors,  which  custom  still 
lingers  in  the  form  of  saying  grace  before  the 
commencement  of  the  evening  meal,  while 
some  families  still  set  the  empty  chair  of  the 
deceased  up  to  the  table.  The  spirits  were  not 
supposed  to  come  unbidden,  the  offering  must 
be  made  to  them,  their  presence  invited,  and 
their  share  set  apart.  The  common  meal  was 
closely  connected  with  their  family  worship. 
Meals  are  an  essential  part  of  all  religious  wor- 
ship. "The  earliest  religious  acts  seem  to 
have  been  the  eating  of  a  meal  prepared  on  an 
altar."  (See  M.  De  Coulange's  "  Ancient 
Cities,"  page  182.) 

They  thought  every  object  consisted  of  two 
parts:  of  a  substance  and  of  a  shadow;  of  a 
soul  and  of  a  body:  of  something  immaterial 
as  well  as  of  something  material;  that  articles 
of  food  and  of  drink  possessed  this  nature.  It 
was  upon  the  immaterial  part  of  the  offerings 
that  the  spirits  fed,  while  the  earthly  parts  were 
left  for  man.  That  which  supported  and 
strengthened  after  its  kind  the  human  body 
supported  and  strengthened  by  its  spiritual 
force  the  spirit  to  whom  it  was  presented;  nor 
did  the  worshipers  doubt  that  at  every  such 
meal  their  divine  head  sat  present,  though  un- 
seen, among  them. 

All  religious  festivals  with  the  native  of  Aus- 
tralia, Africa,  America,  Europe  and  A.sia, 
whether  he  be  Pagan,  Mohammedan,  Bud- 
dhist, Brahmin,  Jew  or  Christian,  are  of  a 
spiritual  nature  and  owe  their  origin  to  a  belief 
of  a  future  existence  after  death.  The  Irish 
wake  is  only  the  lingering  custom  of  the  an- 
cient Celt  feast  to  the  dead. 

Early  philosophy,  then,  and  religion  were  at 
first  one,  and  such  a  union  in  later  times  tended 
to  produce,  in  the  words  of  Lord  Bacon,  "a 
heretical  religion  and  a  fantastic  philosophy." 
But  in  an  early  stage  of  mental  development, 
the  combination  is  one  which  we  might  expect. 
In  their  philosophical  aspect  these  forms  repre- 
sented two  theories:  the  one  the  natural  phi- 
losophy, the  other  the  biology  of  our  fore- 
fathers. In  their  religious  aspect  the  one  was 
the  mythical,  or  heroic,  or  Olympian  religion; 
the  other  was  the  domestic  religion,  the  reli- 
gion  of  the   hearth,  the   worship  of  deceased 


ancestors.  "  The  worship  of  the  house-spirits," 
says  Hearn  in  his  work  on  "Aryan  House- 
holds," "  was  a  reverential  religion,  *  *  * 
and  every  meal  was  in  effect  a  sacrifice,  and 
the  Aryan  housefather,  when  he  reverentially 
asked  a  blessing  upon  his  humble  abode,  felt 
that  he  was  not  only  seeking  a  continuance  of 
the  diviue  protection,  but  that  he  was  securing 
the  happiness  of  the  spirits  of  his  fathers  and 
his  gods." 

Each  household  had  a  house-spirit  which 
was  the  spirit  of  the  deceased  ancestor  that 
still  dwelt  at  and  protected  the  holy  hearth  on 
which  the  ever-burning  fire  was  the  emblem  of 
the  comfortable  element,  and  the  origin  of 
communication  between  the  spirit  of  the  de- 
parted and  those  living  in  the  flesh;  and  it  was 
in  the  olden  days  of  our  Aryan  ancestors  their 
mode  of  worship.  The  husband  and  wife 
made  their  own  offerings;  he  was  the  priest  and 
she  was  the  priestess,  and  it  was  the  center  of 
the  spiritual  life.     • 

The  Aryan  language  contains  an  abundance 
of  terms  expressive  of  a  religious  sentiment  of 
adoration,  of  piety,  of  faith,  of  prayer,  and  of 
sacrifice;  but  there  is  not  any  word  suggestive 
of  public  worship — priests,  idols  or  of  temples 
or  of  altars,  or  that  they  had  any  middle-men 
who  could  act  as  go-between  from  God  to  man 
to  forgive  his  sins  and  give  him  a  free  pass  to 
heaven. 

The  house-spirits  were  directly  charged  with 
the  preservation  of  the  properly  of  the  house- 
hold, as  Horace  tells  us,  "The  guardians 
against  thieves."  "They  repelled  the  thief," 
Ovid  assures  us  in  "Fasti,"  v.  141. 

He  is  known  to  the  Greeks  by  the  name  of 
the  "Hero  of  the  House,"  "Man  of  the 
Household;'  by  the  Romans,  "The  Husting 
of  the  Teutons;"  and  "The  Damovoy,  or 
Angel  in  the  House,"  of  the  Russian  peasant 
of  the  present  day.  The  hearth  was  the  altar; 
there  the  holy  fire  ever  burned,  and  there  the 
gross  corporeal  substance  of  the  food  was 
purged  away  and  its  spiritual  essence  rendered 
fit  for  the  acceptance  of  the  spirit.  On  this 
hearth  where  in  his  lifetime  he  had  so  often 
sacrificed,  the  departed  house-father  received 
at  the  hands  of  his  successor  his  share  of  every 
meal  and  heard  from  his  lips  in  his  own  honor 
those  words  of  prayer  and  praise. 


72 


The  first  step  in  the  formation  of  a  house- 
hold was  marriage.  Then  he  was  a  finished 
man,  according  to  the  Greeks,  and  what  we 
call  a  family  man.  "Then  only,"  says  Menu, 
"  is  a  man  perfect  when  he  consists  of  three 
persons,  united:  his  wife,  himself  and  his  son." 
Our  remote  ancestors  sought  marriage  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  a  son,  for  it  was  to  the  son 
that  the  father  could  look  to  perpetuate  the 
household.  It  was  by  the  son,  according  to 
the  teachings  of  Menu,  that  the  father  dis- 
charges his  duty  to  his  progenitors  and  by 
whom  he  attains  immortality.  It  is  the  son 
who,  in  the  words  of  /Kschylus,  is  the  savior  of 
the  hearth  of  his  fathers.  The  son  must  be 
born  in  lawful  wedlock;  an  illegitimate  son  was 
not  only  not  acknowledged,  but  was  excluded 
from  the  household. 

It  was  of  little  importance  what  befel  a  man 
after  he  had  raised  a  son.  The  ancient  Hin- 
doo father,  after  he  had  raised  his  family,  left 
home  and  lived  in  the  forest,  where  he  might 
be  free  from  care  and  to  study  and  philoso- 
phize. Solon  prohibited  celibacy;  criminal 
proceedings  might  be  taken  at  Athens  and 
Sparta  against  one  who  did  not  marry  at  all. 
Cicero  says  it  is  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the  cen- 
sors to  impose  a  tax  upon  unmarried  men.  It 
was  considered  a  crime  not  to  get  married  and 
have  no  son  to  offer  sacrifice  upon  his  father's 
grave,  and  to  inherit  and  keep  up  the  house- 
hold, which  could  not  be  mortgaged  and  sold — 
the  land  was  not  regarded  as  an  asset  in  the 
way  of  payment  of  debts.  The  son,  therefore, 
was  the  person  who  continued  upon  earth  his 
father's  existence  after  that  father  had  joined 
the  house-spirits,  so  when  a  father  had  begotten 
a  son  he  had  discharged  his  duty  to  his  progen- 
itors. 

"Those  animals,"  says  Menu,  "  begotten  by 
adulterers  destroy,  both  in  this  world  and  the 
next,  the  food  presented  to  them  by  such  as 
make  oblations  to  the  gods  and  to  the  manes." 
The  rule  of  the  Attic  law  was  that  a  bastard 
had  no  place  in  the  worship,  nor  in  the  house- 
hold, nor  in  the  property  of  the  parent,  and  it 
was  the  same  in  Roman,  German  and  Norse 
law.  A  man  married  for  duty  and  not  for 
pleasure.  "  Mistresses,"  says  Demosthenes, 
"we  keep  for  pleasure;  concubines  for  daily 
attendance  upon  our  persons;  wives  to  bear  us 


legitimate  children  and  to  be  faithful  house- 
keepers." Isais  said,  "  No  man  who  knows  he 
must  die  can  have  so  little  regard  for  himself 
as  to  leave  his  family  without  descendants,  for 
then  there  would  be  no  one  to  render  him  the 
worship  due  to  the  dead."  When  Leonidas 
selected  the  three  hundred  braves  to  defend 
Thermopylae,  he  took  only  fathers  that  had 
sons  living  at  home. 

Cato  the  elder  tells  us  that  it  was  the  first 
duty  of  the  house-father  on  his  return  home, 
to  pay  devotions  at  the  altar  of  the  lares.  See 
Mommsen's  History  of  Rome,  volume  I,  page 

173- 

Plato,  speaking  of  the  worship  of  the  gods, 
who  were  only  the  spirits  of  good  and  great 
men  who  had  progressed  high  in  the  spirit 
world,  says,  "  After  these  gods  a  prudent  per- 
son will  celebrate  the  holy  rites  of  daemons — 
spirits — and  after  them  of  heroes,  and  after 
them  follow  the  statues  of  the  household  gods, 
held  holy  according  to  law,  and  after  them  are 
the  honors  paid  to  living  parents;  since  it  is 
just  for  a  person  to  pay  to  living  parents;  since 
it  is  just  for  a  person  who  owes  the  first  and 
the  greatest  of  debts  to  pay  those  that  are  of 
the  longest  standing,  and  to  think  that  all  the 
things  he  has  acquired  and  holds  he  owes  to 
those  who  begot  him  and  brought  him  up,  for 
supplying  what  is  required  for  their  service  to 
the  utmost  of  his  power,  bringing  from  his  sub- 
stance first,  and  in  the  second  place  from  his 
body,  and  third  from  his  soul,  by  paying  off  the 
debts  for  their  care  of  him,  and  in  the  favor  of 
those  who  gave  the  pangs  of  labor  as  a  loan  to 
the  young,  and  by  returning  what  has  been  due 
a  long  time  to  those  who  in  old  age  are  greatly 
in  want.  It  is  requisite,  likewise,  to  hold  pre- 
eminently a  kind  language  towards  his  parents, 
because  there  is  for  light  and  wicked  words  of 
punishment  most  heavy,  for  Nemesis,  the  mes- 
senger of  justice,  has  been  appointed  an  in- 
spector over  all  persons  in  matters  of  this 
kind." 

"  For  as  something  is  always  flowing  away 
from  us,  it  is  necessary  for  something,  on  the 
contrary,  to  be  flowing  to  us.  Now  recollec- 
tion is  the  influx  of  thoughts  which  had  left  us. 
*  *  *  Each  person  while  his  daemon  (spirit) 
is  standing  steadily,  going  on  successfully  or 
unsuccessfully    to    places   as   high   and   steep, 


while  daemons  (spirits)  are  opposing  with  cer- 
tain disturbances;  and  that  it  is  meet  ever  to 
hope  that  the  deity  will,  when  troubled,  fall 
upon  the  good  state  which  he  has  given,  makes 
them  less  instead  of  greater  and  causes  a  change 
from  the  present  state  to  a  better  one  with 
respect  to  the  good  things,  the  contraries  of 
these,  that  they  will  always  be  present  to  them 
with  good  fortune."  Plato,  volume  V,  page 
161. 

The  respect  for  another's  property  was  due 
to  the  respect  or  fear  for  the  spirits  that  guarded 
that  property.  It  is  still  a  custom  among  the 
nomads  of  Central  Asia  if  a  horse  is  stolen  for 
the  owner  to  go  to  the  grave  of  the  father  of 
the  suspected  horse  thief  and  stick  a  spear  into 
the  grave.  This  proceeding  is  understood  by 
the  thief  to  be  a  complaint  made  to  his  de- 
ceased house-father's  spirit,  and  if  the  suspi- 
cion be  well  founded  the  horse  is  found  the 
next  morning  tied  to  the  spear. 

Word,  in  his  book,  "  Journey  to  the  Source 
of  Oxus,"  gives  an  instance  where  the  grain 
was  piled  up  around  a  graveyard.  He  inquired 
of  a  chief,  Agha  Maheide,  the  cause.  "The 
old  man  put  the  forefinger  of  his  right  hand  to 
his  lips  and  looking  at  me  said,  '  God  forbid; 
bad  as  men  are  they  will  not  pilfer  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  dead.' "  The  natives  prefer  to 
trust  their  valuables  to  the  sacred  guardianship 
of  such  a  place  rather  than  to  a  weak  and  fail- 
ing brother. 

There  are  many  people  who  will  not  dese- 
crate a  graveyard,  and  who  believe  that  the 
spirit  will  avenge  the  wrongs  done  to  it  when  in 
the  flesh.  Mr.  Taylor,  in  his  book,  M  Primi- 
tive Culture,"  gives  an  instance  of  where  a 
Brahmin  cut  off  the  head  of  his  mother,  with 
her  consent  and  request,  so  that  her  spirit 
might  punish  a  neighbor  who  had  repudiated 
some  small  debt  which  he  owed  to  the  house- 
hold. The  remarkable  custom  of  setting 
dharna,  which  once  existed  in  Ireland,  and  of 
late  years  has  been  prohibited  by  the  penal 
code  in  India,  traces  of  which,  perhaps,  may 
be  found  in  the  Twelve  Tables.  The  religious 
sentiment  of  the  Archaic  society  of  the  Aryan 
race  was  a  force  which  recognized  property  in 
the  household  which  was  guarded  by  the  house 
spirits. 

The  Chinese  still  carry  the  bones  of  the  dead 


back  to  China  to  be  interred.  Such  worship 
was  natural,  according  to  the  Archaic  ideas; 
but  far  more  natural,  by  the  same  standard, 
was  the  belief  that  the  spirits  of  those  whom 
men  loved  and  honored  in  their  life,  continued 
after  death  their  vigilance  and  their  aid.  The 
interests  of  men  in  the  flesh  were  also  their 
interests  in  the  spirit,  and  the  lives  and  the 
hates  of  this  world  followed  the  deceased  to 
that  world  which  lay  beyond  the  grave. 
Manes-worship,  therefore,  stands  on  the  same 
base  as  the  more  picturesque  worship  of  Olym- 
pus. Thus  primitive  worship  and  that  great 
train  of  consequences  that  has  been  transmitted 
to  us,  depends,  like  primitive  mythology,  upon 
the  state  of  our  intelligence.  It  is,  after  all, 
the  intellect  that  ultimately  directs  and  deter- 
mines the  main  current  of  the  varying  and  tor- 
tuous stream  of  the  world's  history. 

"The  Locan  gods,"  says  Mr.  Taylor  in  his 
"Primitive  Culture,"  volume  II,  page  no, 
"the  patron  gods  of  particular  ranks  and  crafts, 
the  gods  from  whom  men  sought  special  help 
in  special  needs,  were  too  near  and  dear  to  the 
inmost  heart  of  pre-Christian  Europe  to  be 
done  away  without  substitutes,  so  they  substi- 
tuted saints  who  could  answer  their  prayers. 
Some  have  St.  Cecilia,  the  patroness  of  music; 
St.  Luke,  patron  of  painters;  St.  Peter,  of  fish- 
mongers; St.  Valentine,  of  lovers;  St.  Sebas- 
tian, of  archers;  St.  Crispin,  of  cobblers;  St. 
Hubert,  who  cures  the  bite  of  mad  dogs;  St. 
Vitus,  of  vitus  dance;  and  St.  Fiacre,  of  the 
hackney  coaches. 

As  a  rule  every  trade,  every  profession,  every 
guild,  every  tribe,  every  clan  is  also  a  caste, 
and  the  members  of  a  caste  not  only  have  their 
own  special  objects  of  worship,  but  the  princi- 
pal deities  likewise.  So  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury we  still  have  St.  Valentine's  day  on  the 
fourteenth  day  of  February  for  making  merry. 
On  this  day  it  was  supposed  by  the  ancients  the 
birds  of  the  air  made  choice  of  their  mates, 
and  that  it  was  a  favorite  day  with  this  merry 
goddess  to  be  around  and  aid  the  boys  and  girls 
in  their  courtships. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Aryans  were  a 
polytheistic  people.  Pictet  is  of  the  opinion 
that  their  original  belief  was  one  true  God, 
while  Hearn  in  his  work,  "Aryan  Households," 
•hinks  that  the   polytheistic  pantheon  was  not 


74 


of  a  religious  origin,  but  only  scientific,  and 
was  designed  merely  to  explain  in  the  rude 
fashion  of  an  early  time  the  ordinary  phenom- 
ena of  nature.  They  had  a  word  which  cor- 
responded with  that  of  Vesta,  which  goes  to 
prove  that  the  Aryans  recognized  the  hearth. 
It  does  not  indicate  how  far  in  their  eyes  the 
hearth  was  holy. 

The  Hindoo,  Greek  and  Roman  pantheons 
had  their  origin  not  so  much  as  distinctive  reli- 
gions, as  they  were  a  professional  class  or  a  lit- 
erary clan. 

The  magi  of  the  ancient  Persians,  the  Brah- 
mins, the  Hierophants  of  ancient  Egypt,  and 
the  Levites  of  the  Jews,  were  all  a  privileged 
caste,  and  used  their  knowledge  to  control  their 
ignorant  masses  through  their  religious  feelings 
and  dread  of  a  future  punishment  or  in  hope  of 
a  reward  for  doing  good.  So  they  manufact- 
ured gods  to  suit  their  wants,  and  these  gods 
made  such  revelations  as  suited  the  interest  and 
wishes  of  this  favored  class. 

Gladstone  said,  "  that  the  pagan  deities 
represented  deified  men.  Honest  gods  were 
heroes  deified  a  little  above  mortal  man,  in- 
vested with  passions  of  love  and  hate,  courage 
and  cowardice,  united  with  noble  sentiments, 
base  and  vulgar  thoughts,  with  lofty  and  sub- 
lime ideas,  all  wrought  up  by  fancy  so  as  to 
work  upon  the  minds  of  the  people." 

It  is  the  opinion  of  Herbert  Spencer  that 
"the  rudimentary  form  of  all  religion  is  the 
propitiation  of  dead  ancestors,  who  are  sup- 
posed to  be  still  existing  and  to  be  capable  of 
working  good  or  evil  to  their  descendants." 
In  order  to  better  propitiate  the  favor  of  his 
dead  ancestor  he  sometimes  carves  his  image  in 
wood  or  stone,  which  sentiment  in  time  lapses 
into  idolatry.  Every  object  which  strikes  the 
rude  fancy  as  analagous  to  the  character  of  an 
individual  may  become  an  object  of  worship. 
The  savage  molds  his  deity  according  to  the 
caliber  of  his  mind,  out  of  mud  or  carved  from 
wood  or  stone. 

Deep  down  in  the  human  breast  is  implanted 
a  religious  belief  that  l>ehind  all  visible  appear- 
ances is  an  invisible  power;  underlying  all  con- 
ception is  an  instinct  or  intuition  from  which 
there  is  no  escape;  that  beyond  material  actual- 
ities potential  agencies  are  at  work,  and  through 
all  belief,  from  the  stupid  fetishism  to  the  most 


exalted  monotheism  as  a  part  of  these  instinct- 
ive convictions,  it  is  held  that  there  is  a  being 
(or  beings)  who  rules  man's  destiny,  and  that  it 
may  be  propitiated,  to  which  all  turn  their  eyes 
and  lift  up  their  prayers  when  in  distress  and 
danger,  that  cannot  be  averted  by  the  power  of 
man. 

The  word  mythology  is  derived  from  mythos, 
fable,  and  logos,  speech.  It  relates  to  the 
genesis  of  gods  and  their  nature.  It  is  a  mass 
of  fragmentary  truth  mixed  up  with  fiction, 
built  up  of  dead  facts  cemented  with  wild  fan- 
cies. It  is  the  effort  of  the  untutored  man  to 
explain  the  origin  of  things.  In  the  black 
clouds  he  sees  evil,  in  the  flowing  brook,  in  the 
rustling  branches  he  feels  the  breathing  of  gods, 
goblins  dance  in  the  twilight  and  demons  howl 
in  the  darkness  of  night.  When  evil  comes 
God  is  angry,  when  fortune  smiles  God  is 
pleased . 

"Myths,"  says  Bancroft  in  his  "Native 
Races,"  volume  III,  page  i6,  "  were  the  ora- 
cles of  our  savage  ancestors;  their  creeds,  the 
rule  of  their  life,  prized  by  them  as  men  now 
prize  their  faith;  and  by  whatever  savage  phi- 
losophy these  strange  conceits  were  eliminated, 
their  effect  upon  the  popular  mind  was  vital. 
Anaxagoras,  Socrates,  Protagoras  and  Epicurus 
well  knew  and  boldly  proclaimed  that  the  gods 
of  Grecians  were  disreputable  characters,  not 
the  kind  of  deities  to  make  and  govern 
worlds." 

"  Everywhere,"  says  Herbert  Spencer,  "we 
find  expressed  or  implied  the  belief  that  each 
person  is  double;  that  when  he  dies  his  other 
self,  whether  remaining  near  at  hand  or  gone 
far  away,  may  return  and  continue  capable  of 
injuring  his  enemies  and  aiding  his  friends." 
This  idea  of  duality,  he  is  of  the  opinion, 
had  its  origin  with  the  savage,  whose  image  is 
reflected  in  the  brook,  or  his  shadow  which  fol- 
lows him  everywhere,  moving  as  he  moves.  In 
the  dream  the  images  are  as  perfect  as  in  life, 
and  this  has  led  man  to  believe  in  the  existence 
of  a  spiritual  body. 

All  religion  believes  in  prayers  and  sacrifices, 
and  there  has  never  been  found  a  race  of 
human  beings  but  they  had  some  kind  of  reli- 
gion. Says  Max  Muller,  in  his  lectures  on 
"The  Growth  of  Religion,"  "  it  is  an  inherent 
characteristic  of  man."     The  Fiji  believes  the 


75 


shooting  stars  are  gods  and  the  small  ones  the 
departing  souls  of  men.  The  Benin  negroes 
regard  shadows  as  their  souls.  The  Maori 
word  nwta,  a  soul,  meant  a  shadow,  while  the 
idea  of  God  being  everywhere  sprang  from  a 
spirit,  and  the  idea  of  a  spirit  from  that  of  a 
shadow. 

Tacitus  informs  us  that  the  ancient  Germans 
count  those  only  as  gods  whom  they  can  per- 
ceive, and  by  whose  gifts  they  are  clearly  bene- 
fited, such  as  the  moon,  sun  and  fire.  The 
savage  has  no  fixed  ideas  about  religion;  he  has 
no  bible  or  catecb'sm,  only  some  sacred  songs 
and  customs  taught  to  him  by  his  mother. 
His  religion  floats  in  the  air,  and  each  man 
takes  as  much  or  as  little  of  it  as  he  likes. 

A  negro  was  worshiping  a  tree,  supposed  to 
be  his  fetish,  with  an  offering  of  food,  when  an 
European  asked  him  whether  he  thought  that 
the  tree  could  eat.  The  negro  replied,  "  Oh, 
the  tree  is  not  the  fetish;  the  fetish  is  a  spirit 
and  is  invisible,  but  he  has  descended  into  the 
tree.  Certainly  he  cannot  devour  our  bodily 
food,  but  he  enjoys  its  spiritual  part  and  leaves 
behind  the  bodily  part,  which  we  see." 

The  stone  on  which  all  the  kings  of  England 
have  been  crowned  is  an  old  fetish,  and  the 
coronation  of  Queen  Victoria  is  only  a  survival 
of  an  old  Anglo-Saxon  fetishism.  So  is  the 
counting  of  the  beads  in  the  rosary,  or  kissing 
the  cross,  an  act  of  fetishism.  Portuguese 
sailors  fasten  the  image  of  St.  Anthony  to  the 
bowsprit  of  the  ship,  and  kneeling,  address  it 
in  the  following  words:  "St.  Anthony,  be 
pleased  to  stay  there  till  thou  hast  given  us  a 
fair  wind  for  our  voyage."  A  Spanish  captain 
tied  a  small  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary  to  the 
mast  of  his  ship  and  declared  that  it  shall  hang 
there  until  a  favorable  wind  is  granted  him. 
This  is  his  fetish. 

Every  religion  is  a  compromise  between  the 
wise  and  the  foolish,  the  old  and  the  new,  and 
the  higher  the  human  mind  soars  in  its  search 
after  divine  ideals,  the  more  it  becomes  neces- 
sary to  have  symbols  to  convey  to  the  untutored 
mind  of  the  childlike  majority  of  people  who 
are  not  capable  of  realizing  sublime  and  subtle 
abstractions.  Therefore  they  worship  the  thing 
rather  than  what  it  was  intended  to  represent. 
While  we  laugh  at  the  fetish  worship  of  the 
negro,   if  we    would  only  look  around  in  our  i 


own  churches  we  would  see  many  fetish  objects 
or  idols.  The  Portuguese  sailor  saw  the  poor 
negro  fetish  and  made  fun  of  it,  yet  he  wore 
around  his  neck  a  like  fetish  in  the  form  of  a 
cross.  So  there  is  no  religion  entirely  free 
from  fetishism;  nor  is  there  any  religion  which 
consists  entirely  of  fetishism,  for  back  of  all 
religion  there  is  a  spirit  in  some  form  which 
relates  to  the  great  creative  cause. 

When   religions   were  founded  nothing  was 
known  of  science,  of  astronomy,  of  geology,  or 
,  of  the  universe.     The  earth  was  the  great  cen- 
ter around  which  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  rose 
!  and  set,  like  little   lamps  hung  up  in  the  heav- 
enly vaults   to   light  up   the   firmament.     The 
invention  of  the  telescope  by  Galileo  in  1610, 
startled    the     religious    world.      The    Roman 
\  Church   saw   that  it  would  lead  to  new  discov- 
ieries  in  astronomy  which  would  shake  the  foun- 
;  dation   and    then    throw   down   the  edifices  of 
their  religion,  which  was  based  upon  the  bible 
land  the  stability  of  the  earth,  the  littleness  of 
the  sun,  moon  and  stars.     The  church  burned 
!  in  effigy  Pierre  d'Albano,  the  author  of  a  work 
on  astronomy,  in   1327,  and  in  the  same  year 
burned   Cecco   d'Astoli,  of  Florence,  for  pro- 
claiming that   the  earth  moved.     In  1600  the 
church  burned  Brieno  at  Rome,  tor  professing 
the   same   belief,   and   imprisoned  Campanella 
for  twenty-five  years  because  he  assented  to  the 
philosophy   of    Galileo.     They   made   Galileo 
retract  in  1630.     It   put  a  close  guard  on  the 
words   of  Ciampoli   in    161 5,  and   in    1625    it 
burned  Antonio  de  Domines,  and  no  one  dared 
to  express  the  idea  that  the  earth  was  round  or 
that  it  revolved  around  the  sun.     Copernicus 
dared  not    publish   his  work  until    his  death. 
Kepler,  the  legi  lator  of  the  skies,  a  Protestant, 
dared  not  quit  England  and  was  persecuted  by 
the  church  and  accused  of  heresy.     His  aunt 
was  burned  for  sorcery  at  Weil.     His  mother 
was  accused  of  sorcery  and  imprisoned  at  Stutt- 
gardt   in    1615.     Roger  Bacon,  a  learned  friar 
of  Oxford,  was  thrown  into  prison  because  he 
studied    physics   and    astronomy    and    taught 
magic. 

In  France  the  illustrious  Descartes  was  a 
wanderer  and  an  exile  through  life.  He  was 
pursued  everywhere  by  the  hate  of  bigots.  He 
was  a  scientist  and  an  astronomer,  and  for  that 
reason   was   deemed  an   enemy  to  the  church 


76 


and  to  God.  A  learned  Jesuit,  Fabri,  was  im- 
prisoned in  Rome  for  saying,  in  a  sermon,  that 
"  the  motion  ot  the  earth  once  demonstrated, 
the  church  must  interpret  in  a  figurative  sense 
those  passages  of  the  scripture  that  are  opposed 
to  that  principle."  For  they  inserted  Joshua 
commanding  the  sun  to  stand  still,  a*  it  was  so 
written  in  the  word  of  God,  the  bible. 

To-day  mankind  is  governed  by  reason,  and 
the  ancient  religions  must  be  ignored,  for  they 
are  founded  on  blind  faith  in  what  they  are 
told.  The  idea  of  this  earth  being  the  center 
of  all  objective  nature,  when  in  reality  it  is 
only  one  of  the  particles;  a  grain  of  sand  in  the 
vast  oceans  of  worlds  that  are  spread  out 
through  the  skies.  Far  from  affirming  that 
everything  was  made  for  man,  it  should  be  pro- 
claimed that  the  universe  is  a  continuous  whole, 
an  unbroken  chain,  of  which  mankind  is  but  a 
link;  and  that  he,  like  all  other  things,  must 
move  on  to  a  higher  state  of  existence;  that 
there  is  no  retrogression;  that  on  and  upward 
is  the  watchword  of  all  nature,  which  is  moved 
by  the  laws  of  evolution  and  progress,  which  is 
now  an  admitted  fact  by  the  more  intelligent 
thinkers. 

The  religion  of  the  twentieth  century  must 
be  a  religion  of  science  and  not  repulsive  to 
reason.  While  old  religions  have  grown  great 
in  blood  and  tears,  by  persecutions  and  tor- 
ments, amid  the  suffering  of  martyrs  and  cruel 
expressions  of  the  adherents  to  old  doctrines, 
the  religion  of  the  future  must  be  prepared  by 
the  unanimous  consent,  by  universal  conver- 
sion, which  will  rise  without  the  cost  of  a  tear  or 
a  drop  of  blood.  It  will  be  founded  on  rea- 
son and  justice,  and  will  spread  over  the  whole 
earth  as  fast  as  science  can  beat  back  ignor- 
ance and  superstition.  Steam,  electricity  and 
the  printing  press  are  now  doing  the  work  and 
laying  the  foundation  of  the  future  religion. 

"  Religion  may  transcend  phenomena  and 
rise  to  a  region  which  mortal  science  may  not 
enter;  indeed,  it  must  do  so;  the  more  it 
ascends  to  the  height  of  its  great  argument,  the 
more  it  expands  and  draws  nearer  to  the  infin- 
ite; but  if  it  have  no  basis  than  emotions,  and 
reject  all  that  intuition,  science  and  reason 
may  offer  for  its  justification,  it  may  not  soar 
to  that  '  purer  ether,  that  diviner  air,'  where 
faith  is  merged  in  knowledge."     According  to 


Quatrefages,  "religion  is  a  belief  in  beings 
superior  to  man,  and  capable  of  exercising 
good  or  evil  influence  upon  his  destiny;  and 
the  conviction  that  the  existence  of  man  is  not 
limited  to  the  present  life,  but  that  there 
remains  for  him  a  future  beyond  the  grave." 
True  reason  and  religion  have  an  eye  for 
earth  as  well  as  heaven.  Like  the  tall  sequoia 
of  California,  their  branches  are  in  the  sky, 
but  their  roots  are  deeply  imbedded  in  the 
earth. 

So  it  is  necessary  to  look  to  the  physical 
wants  of  man  as  well  as  his  spiritual  nature;  a 
man  can  be  a  better  Christian  on  a  full  stom- 
ach than  on  an  empty  one.  It  is  just  as  nec- 
essary to  send  to  the  heathen  the  plow  and 
the  schoolmaster  as  it  is  to  send  the  bible  and 
the  minister. 

All  religions  aie  good  and  worthy  of  respect, 
because  they  enable  us  to  render  to  God  the 
homage  of  grateful  and  submissive  hearts.  It 
brings  man  into  communion  with  the  divine 
mind,  and  by  prayer  we  link  ourselves  with 
Him;  it  elevates  us  and  lifts  us  up  to  the  im- 
mortal; it  makes  us  better,  whether  God  hears 
our  prayer  or  not,  and  we  know  and  feel  that  it 
makes  us  better. 

But  the  doctrine  of  a  religion  is  another 
thing,  one  that  cannot  bear  or  endure  the  scru- 
tiny of  reason.  The  doctrine  of  the  Buddhist, 
which  restricts  human  life  to  the  earthly  exist- 
ence, which  denies  personal  immortality  to 
man,  absorbing  the  individual  at  his  death  into 
the  bosom  of  the  Great  All,  in  Nirvana,  is 
revolting  pantheism.  The  doctrine  of  Mo- 
hammedanism, which  has  no  basis  but  the 
words  of  its  founder,  gathered  under  the  title 
of  Koran,  and  regarded  as  a  divine  revelation, 
is  not  taken  in  earnest  by  the  Mussulmen  them- 
selves, but  held  as  a  kind  of  political  power 
which  they  enforce  with  the  sword  and  torch. 
The  doctrine  of  Judaism,  which  rests  on  the 
advent,  always  vainly  expecting  a  savior,  a 
messiah,  who  never  comes,  the  need  of  whom 
is  in  no  wise  apparent,  is  almost  ridiculous  and 
absurd. 

The  doctrine  of  original  sin,  which  lies  at 
the  foundation  of  Christianity,  is  illogical  and 
unjust.  To  hold  all  mankind — the  past,  pres- 
ent and  future — responsible  for  the  indiscretion 
of  Eve  for  eating  an  apple  that  was  placed  on 


77 


a  tree  to  tempt  her,  an  event  supposed  to  have 
occurred  some  six  thousand  years  ago  in  an 
obscure  corner  of  Asia,  and  that,  to  atone  for 
this  original  sin,  besides  being  driven  out  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  which  science  has  shown  to 
be  a  myth,  God  had  to  send  His  only  son 
Jesus  to  be  crucified  between  two  thieves,  to 
ransom  all  men,  condemned  and  lost  in  conse- 
quence of  the  indiscretion  of  Adam  and  Eve, 
who  did  a  good  thing  by  eating  the  apple  that 
opened  their  eyes  to  their  ignorance  and  na- 
kedness, is  contrary  to  all  reason  and  common 
sense. 

No  one  can  be  honest  with  himself  and  say 
that  his  religious  views  have  never  changed 
from  childhood  to  old  age.  The  older  we 
grow  the  more  we  learn  to  understand  the  wis- 
dom of  a  childlike  faith,  when  we  are  ready  to 
believe  anything  our  parents  teach  us,  until  we 
have  advanced  and  learned  to  think  and  act 
for  ourselves.  So  the  idea  of  God  in  childhood 
is  different  from  that  of  manhood,  and  that 
idea  of  religion  changes  with  our  intellectual 
development.  No  two  persons  have  and  en- 
tertain the  exact  ideas  of  a  religious  belief.  So 
all  religion  should  be  progressive  and  in  full 
accord  with  the  prevailing  ideas  of  science  and 


the  knowledge  of  things.  The  religion  of  the 
ancient  Hindoo,  Egyptian,  Greek,  Roman  or 
Hebrew  is  not  suited  to  our  present  state  of 
civilization  and  enlightenment.  A  religion  that 
is  not  able  to  grow  and  live  with  us  as'  we  grow 
and  live,  is  dead  and  will  not  admit  of  pro- 
gress. A  religion  that  is  definite  and  unvary- 
ing in  its  uniformity,  so  far  from  being  a  sign  of 
honesty  and  life  is  always  a  sign  of  dishonesty 
and  death.  Every  religion  that  is  to  be  a 
bond  of  union  between  the  wise  and  foolish, 
the  old  and  the  young,  must  be  pliant,  must  be 
high  and  deep  and  broad,  bearing  all  things, 
believing  all  things,  possessing  all  things,  and 
enduring  all  things.  The  more  it  is  so,  the 
greater  its  vitality,  the  greater  its  strength  and 
the  warmer  its  embrace. 

If  religion  refuses  to  accompany  science  it 
will  be  left  alone:  scientific  truths  are  only  de- 
structive to  that  which  opposes  them.  A  reli- 
gion which  is  not  contradictory  to  the  laws  of 
nature  has  nothing  to  fear  from  science,  and 
will  progress  hand  in  hand  with  it.  While 
science  is  limited  in  research  by  laws  which 
govern  rhatter,  that  of  the  spiritual  relates 
to  the  intelligence  that  directs  to  the  fountain 
from  which  all  knowledge  flows. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  GREEKS;  THEIR  GODS  AND  GODDESSES  WERE  ONLY 

SPIRITS  OF  DEPARTED  SAGES  AND  HEROES.     THEIR  MEDIUMS 

FORETOLD  THE  FUTURE  AND  THE  PAST. 


The  Greeks  were  truly  a  medium istic  race  of 
people;  they  were  great  lovers  of  the  beautiful 
and  lived  close  to  nature,  and  followed  her 
laws  and  took  their  models  from  her,  and  in 
so  following  her  they  succeeded  in  rising  to  an 
e'egance  of  refinement  and  a  perfection  of 
beauty  that  has  never  been  excelled.  Her 
poets,  orators,  statesmen,  warriors,  philoso- 
phers, painters  and  sculptors  are  the  masters 
of  all  ages,  whom  all  try  to  emulate  but  none 
claim  to  excel. 

Her  religion  was  natural,  and  her  gods  and 
goddesses  were  only  progressed  human  beings 
who  had  cast  off  the  outer  coil,  and  had  be- 
come more  perfect,  wiser  and  better,  but  who 
still  retained  mortal  feelings  and  passions,  that 
made  them  still  linger  and  take  a  deep  interest 
in  the  affairs  of  mortal  man. 

The  Greek  religion  differs  from  all  the  other 
religions  in  this:  the  human  character  of  its 
gods.  The  gods  of  Greece  are  men  and  wo- 
men idolized  and  on  a  large  scale,  but  still 
they  are  intensely  human  and  but  little  above 
mortals.  The  gods  of  India  were  vast  ab- 
stractions and,  as  they  appear  in  sculpture,  are 
hideous  and  grotesque  idols.  The  gods  of 
Egypt  seem  to  pass  away  into  mere  symbols 
and  intellectual  generalizations;  but  the  gods 
of  Greece  are  persons,  warm  with  life,  radiant 
with  love  and  beauty,  having  their  human  adven- 
tures, wars  and  love  scrapes.  The  symbolical 
meaning  of  each  god  disappears  in  his  personal 
character.  They  were  not  confined  to  any 
particular  sphere,  but  like  mortals  mingled  to- 
gether, having  different  interests  and  occupa- 
tions, like  a  number  of  human  beings,  young, 
healthy,  wise  and  beautiful  and  endowed  with 
immortality. 


They  are  not  trying  to  save  souls  by  any 
ascetic  means;  no  intention  or  bother  about 
making  progress  through  the  universe  by  obey- 
ing the  laws  of  nature;  but  were  bent  on  pleas- 
ure, on  having  a  good  time.  Fighting,  feast- 
ing and  making  love  were  their  usual  occupa- 
tions. If  it  can  be  said  they  cared  for  govern- 
ing the  world,  it  was  in  a  loose  sort  of  a  way, 
with  no  regular  system  or  laws.  They  inter- 
fered with  human  affairs  only  from  time  to  time 
as  it  suited  their  whim  or  passion.  They  an- 
nounced no  moral  law,  and  they  gave  no  pre- 
cept or  example  to  guide  men's  consciences. 

According  to  the  Jewish  religion  man  was 
made  in  the  image  of  God,  but  according  to 
the  Greek  religion  the  gods  were  made  in  the 
image  of  man.  Heraclitus  says,  "  Men  are 
mortal  gods  and  the  gods  immortal  men." 
The  Greeks,  like  the  modern  'Spiritualist,  be- 
lieved that  the  gods  were  close  to  him  and  in 
his  midst;  on  the  summit  of  the  mountain, 
among  the  clouds,  often  mingling  in  disguise, 
and  they  made  themselves  visible  or  invisible 
at  their  option.  They  were  only  advanced 
Greeks,  a  little  higher,  but  not  very  much 
wiser  or  better.  They  beheld  themselves  re- 
flected in  their  deities,  and  they  conjectured 
themselves  up  in  the  heavens,  and  saw  with 
pleasure  a  race  of  divine  Greeks  in  the  skies 
above,  corresponding  with  the  race  of  Greeks 
below. 

The  Greek  religion,  like  that  of  modern 
Spiritualism,  was  delicious  and  calculated  to 
make  men  happy  and  take  away  the  fear  of 
death.  It  was  without  austerity,  asceticism  or 
terror;  a  religion  filled  with  forms  of  beauty 
and  nobleness,  kindred  to  their  own,  with  gods 
who  were  capricious,  indeed,  but  never  stern, 

78 


79 


and  seldom  jealous  or  cruel.  It  was  a  heaven 
peopled  with  such  a  variety  of  noble  forms 
that  they  could  choose  from  among  them  as 
their  protector  the  one  whom  they  liked  best, 
and  possibly  themselves  be  selected  as  favorites. 
Each  person  had  his  guardian  deity  or  spirit; 
the  hunter,  on  a  moonlight  night,  might  chance 
to  behold  the  graceful  figure  of  Diana  gliding 
through  the  woods  in  pursuit  of  game,  while 
the  happy  inhabitants  of  Cyprus  might  come 
suddenly  on  the  fair  form  of  Venus  resting  in 
a  laurel  grove.  The  Dryads  could  be  seen 
glancing  among  the  trees,  and  the  Oriads  heard 
shouting  in  the  mountains,  and  the  Naiads 
found  asleep  by  the  side  of  their  streams.  If 
the  Greek  chose  to  do  so  he  might  take  his 
gods  as  the  subject  for  a  poem,  the  model  for  a 
statue  or  a  picture. 

The  Greek  religion  did  not  guide  or  restrain, 
it  only  stimulated  man.  Nowhere  on  earth, 
before  or  since,  has  the  human  being  been 
educated  into  such  a  wonderful  state  of  perfec- 
tion or  such  an  entire  and  perfect  unfoldment 
of  itself  as  in  ancient  Greece.  There  every 
human  tendency  and  faculty  of  soul  and  body 
opened  into  symmetrical  proportions.  That 
small  country,  not  larger  than  the  State  of 
Maine,  carried  to  perfection  in  a  few  centuries 
every  human  art. 

Everything  in  Greece  was  artistic,  because 
everything  was  finished,  was  done  perfectly. 
On  that  little  peninsula  ripened  the  master- 
pieces of  epic,  tragic,  comic,  lyric  and  didac- 
tic poetry;  the  perfection  in  every  school  of 
philosophy,  history,  oratory,  mathematics, 
sculpture  and  painting.  She  developed  every 
form  of  government  and  gave  us  our  model  for 
a  republic,  and  she  fought  and  won  the  great 
battle  of  the  world.  Before  her  time  every- 
thing in  human  literature  and  art  were  rude 
and  imperfect  attempts;  since  then  everything 
has  been  a  rude  and  imperfect  imitation,  and  it 
was  all  owing,  in  a  great  measure,  to  her  liberal 
spiritual  religion. 

The  gods  of  the  Greeks  were  men  and  wo- 
men; they  were  not  abstract  ideas,  concealing 
natural  powers  and  laws.  They  were  open  as 
sunshine,  bright  as  the  moon,  and  a  fair  com- 
panion of  men  and  women,  idolized  and  gra- 
cious; just  a  little  way  off,  just  a  little  way  up 
in  the  air.     It  was  humanity  projected  up  into 


the  skies,  a  divine  creature  of  more  than  mor- 
tal beauty,  but  thrilling  with  human  life  and 
human  sympathies. 

They  had  gods  and  goddesses,  muses,  fates 
and  furies  without  number.  Every  woodland, 
lake  and  stream  had  its  nymphs.  Mount 
Olympus  swarmed  with  them;  here  they  assem- 
bled and  discussed  the  affairs  of  nations  and 
men.  They  h.nd  Jupiter  or  Jove,  the  supreme 
god,  and  Juno,  his  wife,  who  sometimes  took 
offense  at  her  husband,  for  his  flirtations  with 
the  other  goddesses  and  sometimes  with  a  beau- 
tiful mortal  maid.  His  attendants  were  the 
beautiful  Hebe  and  Ganymede.  They  had  a 
brave  Mars,  the  god  of  war;  the  wise  Minerva, 
who  sprang  from  the  brain  of  Jove,  and  who 
espoused  the  cause  of  Troy;  the  beautiful 
Venus,  that  came  from  the  sea-foam,  typical  of 
the  fact  that  life  first  had  its  origin  in  the  sea. 
She  warmed  the  hearts  of  men  with  love,  and 
her  mischievous  boy,  Cupid,  was  always  shoot- 
ing arrows  into  the  hearts  of  the  unsuspecting 
youths,  and  for  a  joke  he  would  let  a  stray 
arrow  fly  at  the  heart  of  some  old  bachelor  or 
widower  that  would  send  him  around  among 
the  fair  maids  in  search  of  a  wife.  And  there 
was  Diana,  the  goddess  of  hunting,  with  her 
fleet  greyhounds,  to  whom  all  the  sporting  fra- 
ternity paid  reverence;  and  the  wing-heeled 
Mercury,  who  flew  through  the  air  to  carry 
messages  from  one  god  to  the  other. 

They  were  all  live  gods  and  goddesses  and 
endowed  with  passions  like  mortals.  They 
were  only  a  little  above  man  and  were  invested 
with  the  power  of  going  where  they  wished  un- 
seen and  under  no  restraint  to  mortal  man;  in- 
deed, they  were  only  the  spirits  of  mortals,  for 
they  claimed  that  they  all  had  been  men  and 
women  once,  but  had  cast  off  the  mortal  coil 
and  assumed  the  robes  of  immortal  gods. 
Even  when  great  men  died  they  were  often 
deified  and  called  gods  or  demi-gods. 

Such  a  religion  was  calculated  to  make  a 
people  brave  and  polite  and  to  inspire  them 
with  a  love  for  the  beautiful  and  grand.  With 
the  belief  that  these  were  gods  and  goddesses, 
ever  ready  to  commend  them  in  that  which 
was  good,  noble  and  brave,  and  condemn  them 
in  cowardice  and  infidelity  to  state,  and  who 
took  an  interest  in  their  welfare  and  rejoiced  in 
their  valor  and  success  at  arms.     "  To-night," 


80 


said  Leonidas  to  the  three  hundred  brave  Spar- 
tans at  Thermopylse,  "  we  shall  sup  with  the 
immortal  gods!"  "On!  sons  of  the  Greeks!" 
was  the  battle-cry  of  Marathon;  "above  you 
the  spirits  of  your  fathers  watch  the  blows 
which,  to  preserve  their  tombs  from  desecra- 
tion, you  strike  to-day." 

It  was  this  belief  in  immortality  that  inspired 
Homer  to  write  the  great  heroic  poem  that  in 
time  became  the  bible  of  the  Greeks.  The 
gods  and  goddesses  therein  pictured  are  noth- 
ing but  tutelary  deities  that  had  espoused  the 
cause  of  certain  men  and  nations.  They  were 
nothing  but  patron  saints  that  had  ascended  to 
the  spirit  land,  yet  they  still  lingered  around 
their  favorite  abodes  and  took  an  interest  in 
mortals. 

"  The  gods,"  says  Homer  in  XVII  Odyssey, 
page  475,  "like  strangers  from  some  foreign 
land,  assuming  different  forms,  wander  through 
cities,  watching  the  justice  and  injustice  of 
man.  There  were  avenging  demons  and  furies 
who  haunt  the  ill-disposed,  as  there  are  gods 
who  are  the  protectors  of  the  poor." 

In  the  twentieth  book,  Homer  puts  into  the 
mouth  of  Achilles,  after  the  death  of  his  be- 
loyed  Patrocles,  these  words: 

"  'Tis  true,  'tis  certain,  man,  though  dead,  re- 
tains 
Part  of  himself;  the  immortal  mind  remains; 
The  form  subsists  without  a  body's  aid, 
Aerial  semblance  and  empty  shade. 

"This  night  my  friend,  so  late  in  battle  lost, 
Stood  at  my  side,  a  pensive,  plaintive  ghost; 
Even  now  familiar,  as  in  life  he  came, 
Alas!  how  different!  yet  how  like  the  same." 

The  fiery  imagination  and  the  subtle  and 
vigorous  intellect  of  the  Greeks  peculiarly  fit- 
ted them  for  the  reception  of  the  impressions 
from  the  spiritual,  invisible  world,  as  we  see 
in  the  writings  of  Homer,  /Kschylus,  Sophocles, 
Xenophon  and  others.  The  following  is  an 
extract  from  Hesiod: 

"  Invisible  the  gods  are  ever  nigh, 

Pass  through  the  mist  and  bend  the   all-seeing 

eye; 
The  men  who  grind  the    poor,  who  wrest  the 

right, 


Awless   of  heaven's   revenge,   stand  naked  to 

their  sight, 
For  thrice  ten  thousand  holy  demons  rove 
This  breathing  world,  the  delegates  of  Jove; 
Guardians  of  men,  their  glance  alike  surveys 
The  upright   judgments   and   the   unrighteous 

ways." 

The  Greeks  saw  gods  everywhere;  the  eternal 
snows  of  Parnassus,  the  marble  temples  of 
Athens  glistening  in  the  sun,  the  thousand  isles 
nestling  in  the  ^Egean  sea,  the  fragrant  groves 
where  the  philosophers  disputed,  the  fountains 
shadowed  by  plane  trees,  the  solemn  fields  of 
Platrea  and  Marathon;  each  and  all  of  these 
had  their  attendant  spirits.  A  thousand  deities 
received  homage  in  a  thousand  temples,  and 
for  fear  they  might  have  offended  some  one  of 
the  many  gods,  they  erected  one  to  the  '•  Un- 
known God."  "That  one,"  St.  Paul  said, 
"that  he  worshiped."  The  Greeks  believed 
that  the  spirits  controlled  the  destinies  of  men 
and  nations,  and  took  part  in  their  affairs; 
were  ever  present,  though  everywhere  unseen; 
knowing  all  things  yet  known  to  none;  eternal, 
invisible  and  incomprehensible.  Gods  who 
mingled  visibly  in  the  actions  of  men,  who 
clothed  themselves  with  material  forms  and 
lead  them  on  to  victory;  who  shared  the  pas- 
sions of  humanity  and  sympathized  with  their 
infirmities,  who  controlled  the  present  and  gave 
omens  of  the  future,  were  the  beings  that  the 
Greeks  loved  or  feared,  and  bowed  down  to 
to  do  homage  and  erect  temples. 

Their  poetry  is  full  of  sublimity,  represent- 
ing one  god  as  appearing  in  the  clouds  and 
hurling  down  thunderbolts  into  the  midst  of  the 
contending  armies  of  earth.  At  times  the 
gods  get  angry  and  take  sides  in  the  affairs  of 
men,  as  in  the  case  of  the  siege  of  Troy.  A 
god  is  often  represented  as  wandering  through 
the  country  in  the  form  of  a  beardless  youth, 
challenging  men  to  play  with  him  on  the  lyre. 
A  goddess  snatches  from  out  the  midst  of  bat- 
tle an  endangered  warrior,  whose  noble  form 
she  has  become  enamored  of,  and  thus  saves 
his  life  by  enveloping  him  in  a  mist  and  remov- 
ing him  from  sight.  Another  goddess,  mounted 
on  her  celestial  steed,  rushing  through  the  air 
from  capital  to  capital,  arousing  surrounding 
nations  to  take  up  arms  in  the  defense  of  some 


81 


common  cause  that  she  has  espoused.  They 
filled  the  earth  and  skies  with  beings  of  inter- 
est, and  made  life  a  romance,  and  it  was  a 
pleasure  to  die  in  the  defense  of  country  and 
the  right.  It  infused  into  the  heart  a  love  of 
country,  bravery  and  devotion  that  has  never 
been  equaled,  a  refinement  and  a  culture  that 
has  never  been  excelled,  and  a  faultless  phy- 
sique and  loveliness  and  beauty  that  has  in  all 
ages  of  the  world  been  the  model  of  every 
artist  and  the  pride  of  every  master  to  imi- 
tate. 

They  worshiped  the  beautiful,  and  her  artists 
and  painters  strove  to  make  their  pictures  and 
statues  perfect.  Through  this  beautiful  my- 
thology constantly  breaks  the  radiance  of  the 
spiritual  world,  which  informs  us  that  these 
myths  are  only  the  representatives  of  beings  in 
the  spirit  land  that  take  an  interest  in  the  affairs 
oi  man,  but  were  so  clouded  in  mystic  lore 
that  they  were  taken  for  heathen  rites — an 
abominable  absurdity— until  its  true  meaning 
was  interpreted  in  the  light  of  modern  Spirit- 
ualism, and  proven  that  these  gods  and  god- 
desses were  merely  progressed  human  beings  in 
a  higher  state  of  development. 

The  Greeks  had  their  mediums  through  whom 
they  communicated  with  the  different  tutelary 
gods  and  goddesses,  patron  saints  and  spirits. 
They  never  went  to  war  or  did  any  important 
act  without  consulting  their  oracles,  and  their 
wonderful  predictions,  according  to  the  histo- 
rians have  been  fulfilled.  The  most  renowned 
of  the  oracles  was  at  Delphi,  where  the  Pytho- 
ness, a  priestess  or  medium,  sat  upon  a  tripod 
over  a  fissure  in  the  rocks,  from  which  arose  a 
vapor  that  had  an  inspiring  effect  on  the  me- 
dium. Soon  she  would  go  into  a  trance,  like 
some  of  our  modern  mediums,  and  then,  gen- 
erally in  poetry  or  doggerel  verse,  she  would 
utter  some  statement  of  a  prophetic  nature, 
which  would  run  about  as  follows: 
"  See  I  number  the  sands;  I  fathom  the  depths 

of  the  oceans — 
Hear   even   the  dumb;  comprehend,  too,  the 

thoughts  of  the  silent; 
Now,  perceive  I  am  an  odor,  an  odor  it  seem- 

eth  of  lambs'  flesh; 
As  boiling  it  seemeth,  commixed  with  the  flesh 

of  a  tortoise; 
Brass  is  beneath  and  with  brass  is  it  covered." 


This  was  given  in  response  to  a  question  of 
Crcesus,  of  Lydia,  who  had  sent  an  embassa- 
dor to  Delphi  to  test  its  truthfulness.  He  had 
at  that  hour  gone  into  the  kitchen  of  his  palace 
and  cut  in  pieces  a  lamb  and  a  tortoise,  and 
placed  it  in  a  brass  vessel  and  covered  it  with 
a  brass  cover  and  commenced  to  cook  it.  This 
was  a  satisfactory  test,  so  he  sent  back  his  em- 
bassador with  three  thousand  oxen,  numerous 
gold  and  silver  vessels,  a  gold  lion,  one  hundred 
and  seventy  ingots  of  the  same  metal,  with  a 
girdle  and  a  necklace  of  incredible  value.  De- 
positing them  before  the  shrine  of  the  goddess, 
the  embassador  of  Crcesus  demanded  whether 
he  should  go  to  war  against  the  Persians.  The 
oracle  replied,  "When  a  mule  becomes  the 
ruler  of  the  Persian  people,  then,  O  tender- 
footed  Lydian,  flee  to  the  rocky  banks  of  Her- 
mos,  make  no  halt,  and  care  not  to  blush  for 
thy  cowardice."  This  Crcesus  misunderstood, 
not  aware  that  Cyprus  was  the  son  of  a  Median 
princess  and  a  Persian  of  humble  condition, 
and  was  the  ruler  prefigured  under  the  type  of 
the  mule  king.  He  made  war  upon  the  Per- 
sians and  soon  he  was  forced  to  flee,  as  the 
oracle  had  predicted. 

These  oracles  became  the  recipient  of  vast 
gifts  from  kings  and  rich  people  that  consulted 
them,  and  they  were  consulted  by  a  far  greater 
number  of  people  than  now-a-days  consult  our 
mediums;  while  then,  as  now,  they  made  many 
mistakes,  and  there  were  impostors  then  as 
now,  who  humbugged  and  imposed  upon  the 
credulous.  The  belief  in  their  predictions  was 
then  universal,  and  no  general  would  go  to  war 
without  consulting  them.  Even  Alexander  the 
Great  consulted  the  oracle  at  Delphi,  but  the 
medium  said  that  she  was  not  ready;  the  spirit 
did  not  move  her.  Alexander  took  her  by  the 
arm  and  said  she  must  give  him  a  sitting. 
While  leading  her  to  the  tripod,  she  said,  "  Al- 
exander, thou  art  irresistible."  He  at  once  let 
her  go  and  started  off.  She  called  him  back, 
and  said  that  she  did  not  mean  that,  but  to 
wait,  she  had  something  more  to  say.  "  No," 
said  Alexander,  "that  is  enough."  He  imme- 
diately returned  to  his  army  and  told  them 
what  the  oracle  had  said,  *'  that  he  was  irre- 
sistible," and  it  was  the  battle-cry  of  the  army 
which  ever  lead  his  cohorts  to  victory.  He 
was  warned  by  the  magi  not  to  enter  Babylon, 


82 


"that  once  within  her  walls  he  must  assuredly 
die."  For  a  while  he  encamped  outside  of  its 
walls,  but  being  over-persuaded  by  the  doubt- 
ing philosophers  of  Anaxagoras,  he  entered  the 
city,  and  in  a  few  months  he  died  in  a  de- 
bauch. It  is  evident  that  Alexander  had  much 
faith  in  the  oracles,  as  he  visited  Jupiter  Am- 
nion in  the  Libyan  desert,  and  left  many  valua- 
ble presents. 

Plutarch,  in  writing  about  the  oracles,  says: 
"It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  all  the 
instances  in  which  the  Pythia  proved  her  power 
of  foretelling  events,  and  the  facts  of  them- 
selves are  so  well  and  generally  known  that  it 
would  be  useless  to  bring  forth  new  evidence. 
Her  answers,  though  submitted  to  the  severest 
scrutiny,  have  never  proved  false  or  incorrect." 
And  then  he  cites  many  instances,  among  them 
the  eruption  of  Mount  Vesuvius,  which  over- 
whelmed the  cities  of  Pompeii  and  Herculane- 
um;  the  defeat  of  Xerxes'  army  at  Marathon 
and  his  navy  at  Salamis,  etc. 

Lycurgus,  the  great  Spartan  law-giver,  con- 
sulted the  oracle  of  Delphi.  Being  satisfied 
of  the  correctness  of  the  answer  he  received, 
he  left  his  native  land  never  to  return. 

The  most  renowned  of  these  oracles  were 
those  of  Phocis,  at  Claros  in  Ionia,  at  Delos, 
at  Delphi,  at  Didyma  on  Mount  Ismenus  in 
Boetia,  at  Larissa  among  the  Argives,  and  at 
Heliopolis  in  Egypt.  The  pythonesses  or  me- 
diums were  selected  for  their  great  mediumistic 
power.  They  were  females,  virgins  of  great 
purity,  and  they  were  never  allowed  to  marry. 
Then,  as  now,  it  was  a  gift  confined  to  the 
few,  and  they  divined  the  future  and  told  the 
past,  in  many  instances,  with  great  accuracy, 
according  to  the  writings  of  the  ancient  his'o- 
rians. 

Herodotus  and  Plutarch  give  many  instances 
of  the  truthfulness  of  these  oracles,  and  relate 
how  the  spirits  defended  the  temple  at  Delphi 
from  the  Persians,  who  went  there  to  pillage  it 
of  its  vast  wealth.  "  At  first  the  temple  was 
as  silent  as^the  grave,  then  all  at  once  a  deaf- 
ening roar  of  thunder  and  flashes  of  lightning 
burst  forth,  and  superhuman  voices  were  heard 
to  come  forth  from  the  shrine;  huge  rocks 
were  loosened  upon  the  summit  of  Parnassus 
and  rolled  down  amongst  the  invaders  and  lev- 
eled them  like  grass.     The  rest  were  affrighted 


and  fled  in  dismay."  And  this  story  is  as  well 
authenticated  as  many  which  are  related  in  the 
bible  of  the  invisible  arm  aiding  the  children  of 
Israel  in  battle. 

Socrates  was  a  clairvoyant  medium  from  his 
youth.  He  had  unearthly  monitions,  a  "di- 
vine voice,"  as  he  termed  it,  attended  him;  not 
to  urge  him  to  do  good,  but  to  restrain  from 
evil.  It  was  equally  busy  in  the  most  momen- 
tous and  the  most  trifling  actions  of  life — at 
Athens  and  at  Corinth,  when  he  lifted  his 
spear  against  the  enemies  of  his  country;  when 
he  bore  with  meekness  the  revilings  of  the 
shrewish  Xantippe;  when,  in  the  height  of 
his  success,  he  stood  surrounded  by  Plato, 
Alcibiades  and  others  of  the  most  noble  youths 
of  Greece;  and,  finally,  when  he  became  old 
and  feeble  and  was  persecuted,  and  he  calmly 
prepared  himself  to  die,  this  "divine  voice" 
whispered  to  him  sweet  words  of  hope  and 
consolation. 

Xenophon  said  of  him,  "The  little  voice" 
imparted  to  Socrates  a  knowledge  of  the  perils 
that  awaited  him  and  of  the  life  to  come, 
which  so  inspired  him  that  he  calmly  awaited 
death  as  a  pleasure  that  would  free  him  from 
the  mortal  body  and  enable  him  to  assume  one 
of  eternal  glory. 

Plato  relates  many  instances  where  Socrates 
gave  warnings  to  his  friends  of  danger,  and 
thereby  saved  their  lives.  One  he  gives  of  a 
noble  Athenian,  Timarchus,  "for,"  said  Soc- 
rates, "  the  spirit  has  just  given  me  the  accus- 
tomed sign  that  some  danger  menaces  you." 
And  no  one  can  read  of  this  great  philosopher 
and  not  be  impressed  with  the  idea  that  he 
was  not  in  communion  with  spirits  who  placed 
so  much  wisdom  in  his  mouth. 

Gibbon,  speaking  of  Julian,  says:  "  We 
may  learn  from  his  faithful  friend,  the  orator 
Libanus,  that  he  lived  in  a  perpetual  inter- 
course with  the  gods  and  goddesses  (the  spirits), 
that  they  descended  upon  earth  to  enjoy  the 
conversation  of  their  favorite  hero,  that  they 
gently  interrupted  his  slumbers  by  touching 
his  hands  or  his  hair,  that  they  warned  him  of 
every  impending  danger,  and  conducted  him 
by  their  infallible  wisdom  in  every  action  of 
his  life." 

The  present  forms  of  communication  with 
the  spirits   by    table-tipping   and   slate-writing 


83 


were  also  well  known  to  the  ancients.  Am- 
mianus  Marcellinus  says  that  in  the  reign  of 
the  Emperor  Valens,  A.  D.,  371,  some  Greeks, 
skilled  in  theurgy,  were  brought  to  trial  for 
attempting  to  ascertain,  by  magic  arts,  who 
would  succeed  to  the  throne  [see  page  83]. 
This  mode  was  similar  to  that  now  adopted 
by  many  investigators  of  modern  Spiritualism. 
And  Tertullian  says,  in  reproaching  some  of 
the  Christian  fathers:  "  Do  not  you,  magicians, 
call  ghosts  and  departed  souls  from  the  shades 
below,  and  by  their  infernal  charms  represent 
an  infinite  number  of  delusions.  And  how  do 
they  perform  all  this  but  by  the  assistance  of 
evil  angels  and  spirits,  by  which  they  are  able 
to  make  stools  and  tables  prophecy."  Conse- 
quently it  is  self-evident,  whether  we  take  inco 
consideration  that  evil  or  good  spirits  were 
concerned,  that  this  fact  goes  to  show  that 
seances  were  held  and  tables  tipped  over  fifteen 
centuries  ago. 

Ancient  history  is  full  of  instances  that  go 
to  establish  the  fact  that  man  had  communica- 
tions with  spirits  of  the  departed.  The  omens 
that  attended  the  assassination  of  Caesar,  the 
apparition  of  Brutus,  at  Philippi,  and  Sylea,  the 
night  before  he  died,  saw  in  a  vision  the  manner 
of  his  end.  Pliny,  the  younger,  gives  an  ac- 
count of  a  remarkably  haunted  house  that  was 
purchased  by  the  philosopher  Athenodorus,  on 
his  arrival  at  Athens.  He  was  struck  with  its 
remarkable  cheapness,  and  was  informed  that 
no  one  would  live  in  it.  "  He  said  he  had 
nothing  to  fear."  At  midnight  a  noise  was 
heard  and  the  ghastly  figure  of  a  skeleton  passed 
through  the  apartments,  dragging  a  rusty  chain, 
and  motioned  him  to  follow.  He  arose  from 
his  table,  where  he  sat  writing  and  followed. 
The  spirit  preceded  him  to  an  inner  court  of 
the  mansion  and  then  vanished.  He  marked 
the  spot  by  laying  some  leaves  where  the  appa- 
rition designated,  and  returned  to  his  study. 
The  next  morning  he  sought  the  magistrates  of 
the  city.  A  search  was  made  and  a  skeleton 
loaded  with  a  rusty  chain  was  dug  up  at  the 
spot  that  he  had  marked.  He  had  the  skeleton 
removed  and  properly  interred,  and  it  never 
appeared  again;  so  it  proved  a  lucky  invest- 
ment. 

Macrobius  says  that  Trajan,  previous  to  his 
invasion  of  Parthia,    consulted  the    oracle  of 


Heliopolis.  It  returned  a  blank  sealed  paper. 
At  this  he  laughed  and  said  that  as  he  did  not 
believe  in  the  oracle  that  they  had  sent  him  a 
proper  answer.  He  sent  again,  this  time  the 
oracle  returned  a  vine  cut  in  pieces  and  wrapped 
in  a  linen  cloth,  as  a  symbol  that  he  in  like 
manner  should  be,  should  he  return.  He  died 
in  the  East  and  his  body  was  returned,  cut  up 
and  wrapped  in  cloth. 

Strabo  and  Pliny  assure  us  that  in  the  reign 
of  Augustus,  the  priests  of  a  temple  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Loracti,  dedicated  to  the  goddess 
Feronia,  had  been  known  to  walk  barefooted 
over  great  quantities  of  glowing  embers;  and 
Strabo  says,  "The  same  ordeal  was  practiced 
by  the  priestesses  of  the  goddess  Astabores  in 
Cappadocia." 

In  speaking  of  mediums  among  the  ancients, 
a  writer  in  the  London  Examiner  says: 

"  How  many  persons  who  practice,  or  who 
discredit  the  fashionable  exercise  of  table-turn- 
ing and  spirit -invoking  are  aware  that,  ages  ago, 
before  our  ancestors  had  tables  to  turn,  the 
process  was  a  well  recognized  one  in  Imperial 
Rome  and  Constantinople?  Of  abnormal 
manifestations  of  disturbance  in  the  ordinary 
range  of  nobility  among  human  beings,  we  hear 
nothing  in  ancient  history,  but  we  hear  enough 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
in  early  Christian  ages  endeavored  by  assumed 
spiritual  agency,  to  influence  the  movements  of 
the  legs  of  tables,  to  make  us  sensible  that 
modern  processes  for  effecting  the  same  end 
are  inferior  in  point  of  elegance  and  awe-in- 
spiring effect.  This,  we  think,  will  scarcely  be 
denied  by  those  best  acquainted  with  the 
present  method  of  conducting  a  seance  when 
they  learn  the  Roman  method  of  operation, 
which  was  as  follows:  When  a  family  or  an 
individual  desired  to  obtain  information  in  re- 
gard to  some  friend  beyond  the  pale  of  human 
knowledge,  recourse  was  had  to  a  priest,  that  is, 
a  professor  practiced  in  the  arts  of  superhuman 
intelligence.  Accordingly,  when  the  appointed 
day  came,  the  officiating  medium  appeared  in 
white,  and  bearing  in  his  hands  a  small  table 
standing  on  a  tripod  base.  Pausing  at  the 
entrance  door  he  waited  till  the  threshold  and 
the  atrium -had  been  sprinkled  with  aromatic 
and  symbolic  fluids  before  he  passed  on  into 
the  principal  apartment  of  the  house,  and  de- 


84 


posited  his  tripod  over  the  center  of  the  floor. 
This  table,  which,  as  we  are  informed,  must  be 
made  of  laurel-wood,  cut  under  awe-inspiring 
auspices,  had  attached  to  its  base  a  metallic 
hoop  encircjing  it,  on  which  the  letters  of  the 
Greek  alphabet  were  graven,  while  its  upper 
rim  bore  a  number  of  catgut  strings,  to  which 
a  silvered  leaden  ball  was  suspended.  When, 
after  due  course  of  prayers,  incantations  and 
various  gentle  aids  to  motion,  the  table 
began  to  rotate,  the  priest  and  his  attendants, 
who  sat  on  the  floor,  forming  a  circle  round 
it,  noted  down  each  letter  that  was  in  turn 
touched  by  the  extending  strings  of  the  rotating 
tripod.  These  letters  were  put  together,  and 
the  words  they  formed  accepted  as  the  answer 
of  the  oracle.  In  the  case  of  table-turning  in 
the  latter  days  of  the  Empire,  which  has  been 
trasmitted  to  us,  we  find  that  a  body  of  con- 
spirators, being  desirous  of  ascertaining  if  the 
pretender  Theodorus,  whose  cause  they  ad- 
vocated, would  be  the  successor  of  the  Emperor 
Valens,  tested  the  question  by  this  interdicted 
mode  of  divination;  and  conceiving  that  the 
letters  Th  E  O  D  had  been  struck,  there  could 
be  no  doubt  of  the  fulfillment  of  their  wishes, 
they  hastily  overthrew  the  table,  hurried  the 
priests  out  of  the  house,  and  dispersed,  lest 
their  evil  deeds  might  be  detected  by  the  Im- 


perial officers  appointed  to  enforce  the  penal- 
ties incurred  by  dealers  in  magic.  Fate,  how- 
ever, was  too  strong  for  them,  for  Theodorus 
was  seized  and  put  to  death,  as  history  can 
testify,  while  Theodpsius  succeeded  to  Valens, 
and  thus  relieved  the  oracle  from  the  charge  ol 
mendacity." 

But  we  need  not  marvel  at  these  strange 
stories  of  profane  history,  for  the  Holy  Bible  is 
filled  with  it,  from  Genesis  to  Revelations. 
Aaron's  rod  was  turned  into  a  serpent  and 
swallowed  up  the  rods  transformed  into  ser- 
pents by  the  Egyptian  magicians.  The  He- 
brew children  walked  through  the  fiery  furnace; 
Jacob  wrestled  with  an  angel;  the  walls  of  Jer- 
icho were  overthrown  at  the  sound  of  a  ram's 
horn;  Lot's  wife  was  turned  into  a  pillar  of 
salt;  the  witch  of  Endor  raised  the  spirit  of 
Samuel;  Abraham  conversed  with  angels  and 
ate  veal  cutlets  with  them  in  his  tent;  and  a 
voice  cried  out  to  Abraham  and  told  him  of  a 
ram  entangled  in  the  vines,  which  he  could 
offer  on  his  altar  as  a  sacrifice,  instead  of  his 
son  Isaac;  Elijah  was  fed  by  the  ravens;  the 
children  of  Israel  were  fed  with  manna;  Christ 
on  the  mount  of  Transfiguration  saw  and  talked 
with  Moses  and  Elias;  Peter  was  let  out  of 
prison;  and  Christ  rose  from  the  dead. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION. 


Christianity. 

Christianity  comes  ^omjthe  Greek  word 
Christos  which  signifies  7emJu&over  or  anointed, 
and  is  the  same  as  the  translation  of  the  Hebrew- 
word  Messiah,  Messias,  or  Mashiach.  These 
words  alike  mean  the  anointed  one.  Kings  and 
high-priests  were  consecrated  to  their  office  by 
being  anointed.  The  anointed  one,  therefore, 
means  the  chosen,  ordained,  crowned  or  conse- 
crated to  a  high  office;  christuomai  signifies  to 
be  good,  kind  and  merciful;  christotheia  signifies 
goodness  of  heart,  chresteriso  signifies  to  proph- 
esy, chresies  means  a  prophet,  chresmos  is  the 
oracle  or  the  divine  response  and  chrisma  is  the 
anointing  oil  which  was  anciently  freely  used  on 
Christian  converts  and  still  continues  in  the  unc- 
tion of  the  Catholic  church .  Thus  chres  or  chris 
is  the  Greek  expression  for  that  which  is  good 
and  beautiful,  or  which  comes  from  heaven. 
The  word  christos  was  so  closely  associated 
with  divinity  that  it  was  often  applied  by  the 
Greeks  to  Apollo  and  other  gods.  The  world 
has  had  many  christos  or  saviors,  and  all 
nations  have  had  their  christos  or  christs. 
Therefore  Jesus  Christ  is  the  name  applied  to 
the  Hebrew  christos,  the  anointed  prophet. 
Mary  used  oil  to  anoint  Christ,  and  wiped  his 
feet  with  her  hair  to  show  her  profound  vener- 
ation for  him. 

Christianity  is  a  name  full  of  power  and 
eloquent  meaning,  a  divine  and  inspired 
religion,  full  ol  love  and  heroism.  It  cannot  be 
monopolized  by  the  believers  in  Jesus  Christ, 
but  includes  all  who  embrace  and  follow  the 
instructions  of  Jesus  Christ  and  imitate  his 
purity  of  life,  and  who  attempt  to  live  in 
perfect  accord  with  the  divine  law,  so  as  to 
embody  in  themselves  the  highest  inspiration  of 
which  he  is  capable. 


It  allows  a  large  range  of  belief  and  worship. 
One  may  be  a  Christian  and  believe  that  Christ 
was  only  a  good  man;  another  may  believe 
Christ  a  god  equal  to  the  father  in  heaven,  and 
he  can  be  a  Christian;  another  can  worship  the 
Virgin  Mary,  his  mother,  and  be  a  Christian. 
Anyone  may  be  a  Christian  if  he  goes  to  church 
and  contributes  to  the  support  of  the  gospel; 
in  a  word  all  who  belong  to  the  Christian 
nations,  whether  he  be  a  Jew  or  Gentile, 
Atheist  or  Infidel,  is  according  to  the  definition 
of  the  term,  a  Christian.  It  represents  and 
expresses  a  civilization. 

Advent  of  Christ. 

The  time  was  propitious  for  the  introduction 
of  a  new  religion.  Paganism  was  in  its  last 
throes;  Jupiter's,  Manu's  and  Moses'  altars  had 
no  longer  believers,  and  the  intelligent  people 
had  discarded  the  myth,  and  the  masses  were 
ready  to  swallow  any  new  religion  offered. 
Pythagoras,  Aristotle,  Socrates,  Plato  and 
Cicero  had  evicted  the  myth  of  the  Olympian 
gods  from  the  minds  of  the  intelligent  thinking 
people.  Their  writings,  like  that  of  modern 
science,  had  undermined  the  dogmas  of  the 
fabulous  mythology.  Cicero  wondered  that 
two  priests  could  look  into  each  other's  faces 
and  not  laugh  at  the  trick.  For  two  ages  past, 
Pyrrha,  Cimon,  Sextus,  Empiricus  and  Enesidius 
no  longer  believed  in  anything  and  Lucretius 
had  just  written  his  book  on  nature. 

On  the  other  side,  those  old  and  decaying 
theologies  of  Moses  left  in  the  spirit  of  the 
multitude  the  idea  of  a  Redeemer,  which 
ancient  India  had  bequeathed  to  all  the 
nations;  and  the  wearied  people  waited  for 
something  new  to  replace  their  extinct  beliefs, 
to  nourish  their  energy,  paralyzed  by  doubt, 
and  in  great  need  of  hope. 

85 


86 


It  was  then  that  a  poor  Jew,  born  of  the 
lower  class,  appeared,  possessed  of  remarkable 
mediumistic  power,  and  started  on  the  mission 
of  reforming  man  and  checking  the  growth  of 
materialism.  He  soon  gathered  around  him 
many  followers,  and  persecution  did  its  work 
"and  the  blood  of  martyrs  became  the  seed 
of  the  church." 

Primitive  Christianity  had  its  origin  in  small 
scattered  groups,  organized  into  secret  soci- 
eties with  passwords,  grips  and  signs,  which 
enabled  the  initiated  to  recognize  each  other. 
To  avoid  the  unrelenting  persecutions  of  their 
enemies  they  were  obliged  to  meet  in  the  night 
in  secret  places;  in  caves,  deserted  catacombs, 
woods  and  mountain  fastnesses.  From  the  first 
appearance  of  Jesus  and  his  twelve  disciples, 
they  sought  refuge  in  quiet  places,  in  the 
wilderness  and  among  their  friends  in  Bethany. 
It  is  evident  that  they  were  rather  quiet  and 
did  not  attract  much  attention  among  the 
profane  writers.  Renan  shows  that  Philo, 
who  lived  in  Palestine  while  the  "glad  tidings" 
were  being  preached,  never  heard  of  him. 
Josephus,  the  Hebrew  historian,  who  was  born 
three  years  after  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  only 
makes  a  short  mention  of  him,  and  even  that 
bears  the  marks  of  interpolation. 

Suetonius,  the  secretary  of  Adrian,  who 
wrote  the  history  of  the  Emperor  Claudius  in 
the  second  century,  says  that  he  (Claudius) 
banished  all  the  Jews,  who  were  continually 
making  disturbances  at  the  instigation  of  one 
Crestus,  evidently  meaning  Christ. 

The  Emperor  Adrian,  in  a  letter  to  Servia- 
nus,  says,  "That  he  believes  the  new  sect 
(Christians)  were  worshipers  of  Serapis,  an 
Egyptian  deity;  and  Christ  is  represented  as 
Serapis,  wearing  long  hair,  turned  back,  falling 
down  on  his  back  and  shoulders  like  a  woman, 
his  whole  person  enveloped  in  drapery,  reach- 
ing his  feet."  [See  "Gnostics  and  their  Re- 
mains," page  68.]  "  There  can  be  no  doubt," 
remarks  the  same  author,  "  that  the  head  of 
Serapis,  marked,  as  the  face  is,  by  a  grave  and 
pensive  majesty,  supplied  the  first  idea  for  the 
conventional  portraits  of  the  Savior." 

The  Gnosis,  or  Gnosticism,  comprehended 
the  doctrine  of  the  magi — the  wise  men  of  the 
East  who  followed  the  star  to  Bethlehem — and 
they    were    in    direct   communication  with  the 


Divine  mind,  which  revealed  to  them  these 
facts,  through  some  of  the  modes  of  spiritual 
manifestation.  They  were  not  Jews,  they  were 
heathen  who  had  come  from  the  East,  and 
were  skilled  in  the  arts  of  nature  and  knew  by 
certain  signs  they  were  to  know  him,  and  so 
informed  Herod  of  his  whereabouts. 

Christ  said,  "  God  is  a  spirit  and  they  who 
worship  him  worship  in  spirit  and  truth."  Those 
who  follow  Christ's  teachings  embrace  the  doc- 
trines of  Spiritualism,  and  consequently  there 
should  be  no  antagonism  between  Spiritualism 
and  the  other  Christian  religions,  as  they  are 
all  derived  from  the  same  source.  Christ  said, 
"I  will  be  with  you  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world."  He  evidently  meant  that  his  spirit 
would  be  with  them.  And  the  idea  that  Christ 
would  come  again  and  reign  on  earth  was  taken 
from  the  mistaken  idea  that  he  should  be  rein- 
carnated in  the  flesh  again,  which  is  the  belief 
of  the  Buddhists  that  Buddha  is  ever  reincar- 
nating in  the  person  of  a  child. 

Christ  and  his  apostles  were  possessed  of 
wonderful  mediumistic  powers,  but  in  time  this 
mediumistic  power  was  lost  in  the  cold  em- 
brace of  the  Christian  churches,  who  did  not 
follow  his  sublime  teachings  and  preach  his 
gospel  to  the  whole  world.  In  losing  this  me- 
diumistic power  the  churches  have  become  ma- 
terialistic, and  for  that  reason  they  oppose  the 
doctrine  of  modern  Spiritualism,  which  is  in- 
tended to  take  man  back  to  the  pure  stream  of 
religion  that  he  taught  in  his  sermon  on  the 
mount.  Christ  received  his  messages  direct 
from  the  Divine  mind,  and  there  is  no  reason 
why  it  cannot  be  done  by  others  as  well  as  by 
him. 

The  laws  of  the  natural  and  spirit  world  are 
always  the  same.  Philo  and  other  contempo- 
rary historians  say  the  Essenes  were  a  sect  of 
pure  and  holy  men,  which  arose  about  one 
hundred  years  before  the  advent  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth;  and  it  is  supposed  by  some  that, he 
belonged  to  that  order.  The  doctrines,  man- 
ners and  customs  of  this  sect  resembled  that  ot 
Jesus  and  his  disciples,  and  his  sermon  on  the 
mount  is  full  of  their  aphorisms.  This  pure 
and  simple  spiritual  religion  taught  by  the  early 
Christians  perished  about  the  time  that  Con- 
stantine  the  Great  usurped  its  name  and  fame 
in  order  to  justify  his  own   iniquitous  and  atro- 


87 


cious  murders,  and  to  give  him  strength  by 
enlisting  the  Christians  under  his  banner;  and 
it  then  became  engrafted  on  Roman  paganism. 
The  shaved  headed  augurs  were  changed  into 
monks  and  priests,  and  the  vestal  virgins  into 
nuns  and  sisters  of  charity;  and  the  burning 
of  incense,  is  a  vestige  of  the  fire-worship- 
ers, who  always  kept  a  fire  burning  in  a  lamp 
suspended  near  or  on  the  altar.  After  it  be- 
came the  state  religion,  with  the  Emperor  Con- 
stantine  at  its  head,  it  assumed  a  power  that 
enforced  its  creeds  upon  the  unbelievers,  that 
made  the  name  of  Jesus  known  to  the  whole 
Roman  empire,  which  at  that  time  governed 
the  civilized  world. 

Ammonius  Sacchas,  the  great  Alexandrian 
teacher  and  philosopher,  the  theodiaoktis ,  in  his 
numerous  works  a  century  and  a  half  before 
St.  Augustine,  acknowledged  Jesus  as  "an 
excellent  man,  and  the  friend  of  God."  He 
always  maintained  that  the  ultimate  design  of 
Jesus  was  not  to  abolish  the  intercourse  with 
gods  and  demons  (spirits),  but  simply  to  purify 
the  ancient  religion;  that  "  the  religion  of  the 
multitude  went  hand  in  hand  with  philosophy, 
and  with  her  had  shared  the  fate  of  being  by 
degrees  corrupted  and  obscured  with  mere  hu- 
man conceits,  superstitions  and  lies;  that  it 
ought,  therefore,  to  be  brought  back  to  its 
original  purity,  by  purging  it  of  this  dross  and 
expounding  it  upon  philosophical  principles; 
and  that  all  Christ  had  in  view  was  to 
reinstate  and  restore  to  its  primitive  integrity 
and  purity  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients." 

All  great  religious  reformers  were  pure  at  the 
beginning.  The  first  followers  of  Buddha  as 
well  as  the  disciples  of  Jesus  were  men  of  great 
austerity  and  the  highest  morality,  as  in  the 
case  of  Sakya-Muni,  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Jesus, 
St.  Paul,  Ammonius  and  Sakkas.  The  great 
Gnostic  leaders,  if  less  successful,  were  not 
less  virtuous  in  practice  nor  less  morally  pure. 
Marcion,  Basilidesand  Valentinus  were  renown- 
ed for  their  ascetic  lives.  The  Nicolaitanes, 
if  they  did  not  belong  to  the  great  body  of  the 
Ophites,  were  numbered  among  the  small  sects 
which  were  absorbed  in  it  at  the  beginning  of 
the  second  century.  The  Gnostics  were  a  sect 
of  philosophers  that  arose  in  the  first  century 
of  Christianity,  and  they  formed  a  system  of 
theology  agreeable   to  that  of  Pythagoras  and 


Plato,  and  in  conformity  to  that  of  the  script- 
ures. They  held  that  all  religions  had  their 
origin  in  secret  societies. 

The  innumerable  gems  and  amulets  are  a 
proof  of  this.  They  had  their  symbols,  signs 
and  secret  workings  that  the  outside  world 
knew  nothing  of,  by  which  means  they  were 
able  to  know  each  other.  The  Kabalists  were 
the  first  to  embellish  the  universal  Logos  with 
such  terms  as  "  Light  of  Light,''  the  messenger 
of  life  and  light  (see  John  i),  and  we  find  these 
expressions  adopted  in  toto  by  the  Christians, 
with  the  addition  of  nearly  all  the  Gnostic 
terms,  such  as  Pleroma  (fullness),  Archons, 
.■Eons,  etc.,  as  to  the  ''first  born,"  the  first 
and  the  "  only  begotten."  These  terms  are  as 
old  as  the  world.  Origen  shows  the  word 
"Logos,"  as  existing  among  the  Brahmins. 
The  Brahmins  say  that  the  God  is  light,  not 
such  as  one  sees,  nor  such  as  sun  and  fire;  but 
they  have  the  God  Logos,  not  articulate,  the 
Logos  of  the  Gnosis,  through  whom  the  high- 
est mysteries  of  the  Gnosis  are  seen  by  the 
wise — those  of  clairvoyant  sight.  The  Acts 
and  the  fourth  Gospel  are  full  of  Gnostic  ex- 
pressions. The  Kabalistic  terms  "  God's  first- 
born emanated  from  the  Most  High,"  together 
with  that  which  is  the  u  spirit  of  the  anointed ;" 
and  again,  "  they  called  Him  the  anointed  of 
the  highest,"  are  reproduced  in  spirit  and  sub- 
stance by  the  author  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John. 
"  That  was  the  true  light,  and  the  light  shineth 
in  darkness."  "And  the  word  was  made 
flesh." 

The  "  Christ  "  and  the  "  Logos"  are  terms 
which  existed  ages  before  Christianity.  The 
Oriental  Gnosis  was  studied  long  before  the 
days  of  Moses,  and  we  have  to  seek  for  the 
origin  of  all  these  words  in  the  Archaic  periods 
of  the  primeval  Asiatic  philosophy.  Peter's 
second  epistle  and  Jude's  fragment,  preserved 
in  the  new  Testament,  show  by  their  phraseol- 
ogy that  they  belonged  to  the  Kabalistic  Orien- 
tal order,  for  they  use  the  same  expressions  as 
did  the  Christian  Gnostics,  who  built  or  took 
a  part  of  their  system  from  the  Oriental  Kab- 
ala,  and  that  it  was  grafted  on  it.  "  Presump- 
tuous are  they  [the  Ophites],  self-willed,  they 
are  not  afraid  to  speak  evil  of  dignities,"  says 
Peter  in  Second  Epistle,  ii:  10.  The  original 
model    for   the   latter  is  the  abusive  Tertullian 

OF  THK 

MIVERSITY 


and  Irenseus.  "  Likewise  (even  as  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah)  also,  these  filthy  dreamers  defile 
the  flesh,  despise  dominion  and  speak  evil 
of  dignities"  says  Jude,  repeating  the  very 
words  of  Peter  and  thereby  using  expressions 
consecrated  in  the  Kabala.  Dominion  is  the 
"empire,"  the  tenth  of  the  Kabalistic  sephiron. 
They  held  that  the  types  of  the  creation,  or 
the  attributes  of  the  Supreme  Being,  are 
through  the  emanations  of  Adam  Kadmon. 

Thus,  when  the  Nazarenes  and  other  Gnostics 
of  the  more  Platonic  tendency  twitted  the 
Jews  as  "  abortions  who  worship  their  god 
Qurbo,  Adonai,"  we  need  not  wonder  at  the 
wrath  of  those  who  had  accepted  the  old  Mo- 
saic system,  but  at  that  of  Peter  and  Jude,  who 
claimed  to  be  followers  of  Jesus,  and  dissent 
from  the  views  of  him  who  also  was  a  Nazarene. 
The  dispersed  Nazarenes  were  a  secret  sect  that 
had  no  affiliation  with  the  Jews,  and  they  were 
a  remnant  of  the  ancient  Phoenicians,  that  still 
lived  on  the  other  side  of  the  Jordan  and  ex- 
tended far  into  the  interior. 

According  to  the  Kabala,  the  empire  of 
dominion  is  "the  consuming  fire  and  his  wife 
is  the  temple  or  church,  and  powers  and  digni- 
ties (spirits)  are  subordinate  genii  of  the  arch- 
angels and  angels  of  the  Sohar."  These  ema- 
nations are  the  very  life  and  soul  of  the  Kab- 
ala and  Zoroasterism.  And  the  Talmud,  the 
sacred  book  of  the  Jews,  is  borrowed  from  the 
Zend-Avesta,  the  sacred  book  or  bible  of  the 
Persians  and  fire-worshipers;  therefore,  by 
adopting  the  views  of  Peter,  Jude  and  other 
apostles,  the  Christians  have  become  but  a  dis- 
senting sect  of  the  Persians,  for  they  do  not 
even  interpret  the  meaning  of  all  such  powers 
as  the  true  Kabalists  do. 

St.  Paul,  warning  his  converts  against  the 
worshiping  of  angels,  showed  how  well  he  ap- 
preciated, even  so  early  as  his  period,  the  dan- 
gers of  borrowing  from  a  mythical  doctrine,  the 
philosophy  of  which  could  be  rightly  interpre- 
ted but  by  its  well-learned  adherents,  the  Magi 
and  the  Jewish  Tanaim.  In  Colossians  ii:  18, 
he  says,  "  Let  no  man  beguile  you  of  your 
reward  in  a  voluntary  humanity  and  worshiping 
of  angels,  intruding  into  those  things  which  he 
hath  not  seen,  vainly  puffed  up  by  his  fleshly 
mind,"  is  a  sentence  laid  right  at  the  door  of 
Peter  and  his  companions. 


In  the  Talmud  Michael  is  prince  of  water, 
who  has  seven  inferior  spirits  subordinate  to 
him.  He  is  the  patron,  the  guardian  angel  of 
the  Jews,  as  Daniel  informs  us.  And  the 
Greek  Ophites,  who  identified  him  with  their 
Ophimorphous,  the  personified  creation  of  en- 
vy and  malice,  of  Ilda-Baoth,  thet  Demiurgus 
(creator  of  the  material  world),  and  undertook 
to  prove  that  he,  Samuel,  the  Hebrew  prince 
of  the  evil  spirits  or  Persian  deos,  were  natur- 
ally regarded  by  the  Jews  as  blasphemers. 

In  all  ages  and  among  all  nations  there  is  a 
tendency  of  the  ignorant  and  designing  to 
create  gods  out  of  ministering  spirits  and  angels 
that  come  in  contact  with  mediums,  seers  and 
prophets,  which  soon  corrupts  the  pure  and 
monotheistic  belief  in  one  God,  out  of  whose 
divine  will  and  power  all  things  have  evolved. 

It  is  evident  that  Jesus  was  a  pure  and  good 
man,  endowed  with  a  great  love  of  the  pure 
and  simple  religion,  and  it  is  clearly  apparent 
that  he  struggled  hard  to  reform  the  Jews;  but 
they  did  not  understand  and  appreciate  him, 
and  they  therefore  crucified  him;  and  after  the 
elapse  of  three  hundred  years  he  was  deified  as 
one  of  the  godhead,  and  from  his  teachings 
and  those  of  his  disciples,  has  arisen  the 
Christian  church,  and  over  the  question  of  his 
divinity  rivers  of  blood  have  been  shed  to 
make  him  a  god,  and  to  enforce  the  creeds  and 
dogmas  of  the  church. 

St.  Paul  was  the  true  founder  of  Christian 
theology.  This  indomitable  disciple  was  a  man 
of  learning,  well  versed  in  the  mysterious  doc- 
trines of  the  Gnostics,  and  wrote  in  the  true 
Kabalistic  spirit  of  the  masters  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ;  and  the  manner  of  his  conversion 
is  one  of  the  best  physical  manifestations  of 
the  spirits  on  record.  It  is  evident  that  St. 
Paul,  believing  in  occult  powers  in  the  world, 
"  unseen,"  but  ever  "  present,"  says,  "  Ye 
walked  according  to  the  <con  of  this  world,  ac- 
cording to  Archon  (//da  Jiaot/i,  the  Jh-minr^), 
that  has  the  domination  of  the  air"  and  "  we 
wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
the  dominations,  the  powers,  the  lords  of  dark- 
ness, the  mischievousness  of  spirits  in  the  upper 
regions."  This  sentence  "  ye  were  dead  in  sin 
and  error,"  for  "ye  walked  according  to  the 
Archon,"  or  (Ilda-Baoth,)  the  god  and  creator 
and  master  of  the   Ophites,  shows   unequivo- 


89 


cally  that,  ist,  Paul,  notwithstanding  some 
dissensions  with  the  more  important  doctrines 
of  the  Gnostics,  shared  more  or  less  their  cos- 
mogonical  views  on  the  emanations;  2d,  that 
he  was  fully  aware  that  this  Demiurg,  whose 
Jewish  name  was  Jehovah,  was  not  the  God 
preached  by  Jesus;  and  now,  if  we  compare 
the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul  with  the  religious 
views  of  Peter  and  Jude,  we  find  that  not  only 
did  they  worship  Michael,  the  archangel,  but 
that  they  also  reverenced  Satan,  because  the 
latter  was  also  an  angel  before  his  fall.  This 
they  do  quite  openly,  and  abuse  the  Gnostics 
for  speaking  "evil  "  of  him.  (See  Peter's  Sec- 
ond Epistle). 

No  one  can  deny  the  following:  Peter,  when 
denouncing  those  who  are  not  afraid  to  speak 
evil  of  "dignities,"  adds  immediately,  "  where- 
as angels  which  are  greater  in  power  and  might 
bring  not  railing  accusations  against  them  (the 
dignities)  before  the  Lord."  Who  are  the 
"dignities"  referred  to?  Jude,  in  his  general 
epistle,  makes  the  meaning  of  the  word  as  clear 
as  day.  The  "dignities"  are  the  devils,  and 
the  devils  are  evil  spirits.  Jude  when  com- 
plaining of  the  disrespect  shown  by  the  Gnos- 
tics to  paivers  and  dominions,  uses  the  very 
words  of  Peter:  "  And  yet  Michael,  the  arch- 
angel, when  contending  with  the  devil  (evil 
spirit)  he  disputed  about  the  body  of  Moses, 
durst  not  bring  against  him  a  railing  accusation, 
but  said,  '  the  Lord  rebuke  thee.'  "  Is  this 
not  plain  enough  to  show  that  they  did?  if  not 
then  we  have  the  Kabala  to  prove  who  were 
the  dignities. 

In  Deuteronomy  xxxiv:  6,  we  find  that  the 
"  Lord  Himself  buried  Moses  in  a  valley  of 
Moab,  and  no  man  knoweth  of  his  sepulchre 
unto  this  day."  This  biblical  lapsus  lingua  of 
Jude  gives  a  strong  coloring  to  the  assertions  of 
some  of  the  Gnostics.  They  claimed  only 
what  was  secretly  taught  by  the  Jewish  Kaba- 
lists  themselves,  to-wit:  that  the  highest  su- 
preme God  was  unknown  and  invisible,  "  the 
king  of  light  is  a  closed  eye;"  that  Ilda-Baoth, 
the  Jewish  second  Adam,  was  the  real  Demi- 
urg; and  that  Iao,  Adonai,  Saboth  and  Eloi 
were  the  quaternary  emanations  which  formed 
the  unity  of  the  God  of  the  Hebrews — Je- 
hovah. Moreover,  the  latter  was  also  called 
Michael,    the   archangel,    by  Samuel,  and  re- 


garded as  an  angel  several  degrees  removed 
from  the  godhead.  The  disciples  were  unedu- 
cated, except  St.  Paul,  and  they  drew  their 
knowledge  from  the  unseen  world  like  many  of 
the  mediums  of  modern  Spiritualism,  who  often 
confound  the  most  learned  doctors  and  men  of 
science. 

The  Chaldean  version  of  the  Pentateuch, 
made  by  the  well-known  Babylonian  divine 
Onkelos,  was  regarded  as  the  most  authoritive 
of  all;  and  it  is  according  to  this  learned  rabbi 
that  Hillel,  and  and  other  tanaim  after  him, 
held  that  the  being  who  appeared  to  Moses  in 
the  burning  bush,  on  Mount  Sinai,  and  who 
finally  buried  him,  was  the  angel  of  the  Lord, 
Memro,  and  not  the  Lord  himself,  and  that  he 
whom  the  Hebrews  of  the  old  Testament  mis- 
took for  Iahoh,  was  his  messenger,  one  of  his 
sons  or  emanations.  All  this  goes  to  establish 
but  one  logical  conclusion,  merely  that  the 
Gnostics  were  far  superior  to  the  disciples  in 
knowledge,  learning  and  the  religious  doctrines 
of  the  Jews. 

There  have  existed  in  all  ages  men  who  be- 
longed to  secret  societies  under  different  names 
— Esoteric,  Brahminical,  Buddhistical,  Chal- 
dean, Hermetic,  Ophite,  Gymnosophites  and 
Magi  philosophers.  The  Sufis  and  Rashees,  of 
Kashmere,  instituted  a  kind  of  international 
and  universal  Freemasonry  among  the  Esoteric 
societies;  and  says  Higgins,  "These  Rashees 
are  the  Essenians,  Carmelites  or  Nazarites  of  the 
Temple,  and  it  was  from  the  latter  Christ  de- 
rived his  knowledge,  as  he  was  a  Nazarene,  and 
the  priest  or  masters  understood  the  occult  sci- 
ence, under  the  name  of  Regenerating  Fire. 
This  science  for  more  than  three  thousand 
years  was  the  peculiar  possession  of  the  Indian 
and  Egyptian  priesthood,  into  the  knowledge 
of  which  Moses  was  initiated  at  Heliopolis, 
where  he  was  educated;  and  Jesus  was  educated 
among  the  Essenian  priests  of  Egypt  or  Judea, 
and  by  the  knowledge  thus  gained  these  two 
great  reformers,  particularly  the  latter,  wrought 
many  of  the  miracles  mentioned  in  the  script- 
ures." 

"The  Christian  Gnostics  sprang  into  exist- 
ence towards  the  beginning  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, and  just  at  the  time  when  the  Essenes 
most  mysteriously  faded  away,  which  indicates 
that  they  were  the  identical  Essenes,  and,  more- 


90 


over,  pure  Christists,  viz:  they  believed,  and 
were  those  who  best  understood  what  one  of 
their  own  brethren  had  preached.  In  insisting 
that  the  letter  Iota,  mentioned  by  Jesus,  (Mat. 
v:i8,)  indicated  a  secret  doctrine  in  relation  to 
the  ten  aeons,  is  sufficient  to  demonstrate  to 
a  Kabalist  that  Jesus  belonged  to  the  Free- 
masonry of  those  days;  for  I,  which  is  iota  in 
Greek,  has  no  other  name  in  other  languages, 
and  is,  as  it  was  among  the  Gnostics  of  those 
days,  a  pass-word,  meaning  the  '  Scripture  of 
the  Father,'  in  Eastern  brotherhoods  which 
exist  to  this  day." 

"  It  comes  to  this,"  writes  Irenaeus,  com- 
plaining of  the  Gnostics,  "they  neither  con- 
sent to  the  scriptures  nor  tradition;"  and  why 
should  we  wonder  at  that,  when  even  the  com- 
mentators of  the  nineteenth  century,  with  noth- 
ing but  fragments  of  Gnostic  manuscripts  to 
compare  with  the  voluminous  writings  of  their 
calumniators,  have  been  enabled  to  detect 
fraud  on  every  page  ?  How  much  more  must 
the  polished  and  learned  Gnostics,  with  all 
their  advantages  of  personal  observation  and 
knowledge  of  the  facts,  have  realized  the  stu- 
pendous scheme  of  fraud  that  was  being  con- 
summated before  their  very  eyes  ?  Why  should 
they  accuse  Celsus  of  maintaining  that  their  re- 
ligion was  all  based  on  the  speculations  of 
Plato,  with  the  difference  that  his  doctrines 
were  far  more  pure  and  rational  than  theirs, 
when  we  find  Sprengell,  seventeen  centuries 
later,  writing  the  following:  "Not  only  did 
they  (the  Christians)  think  to  discover  the  dog- 
mas of  Plato  in  the  books  of  Moses,  but,  more- 
over, they  fancied  that  by  introducing  Platon- 
ism  into  Christianity  they  would  elevate  the 
dignify  of  this  religion  and  make  it  more  popu- 
lar among  the  nations." 

"They  introduced  it  so  well  that  not  only 
was  the  Platonic  philosophy  selected  as  a  basis 
for  the  trinity,  but  even  the  legends  and  my- 
thical stories  which  had  been  current  among 
the  admirers  of  the  great  philosopher,  as  a 
time-honored  custom  required  in  the  eyes  of 
his  posterity  such  an  allegorical  homage  to 
every  hero  worthy  of  deification,  were  revamp- 


ed and  used  by  the  Christians.  Without  going 
so  far  as  India,  did  they  not  have  a  ready 
model  for  the  ■  miraculous  conception  '  in  the 
legend  about  Periktione,  Plato's  mother?  In 
her  case  it  was  also  maintained  by  popular  tra- 
dition that  she  had  immaculately  conceived 
him,  and  that  the  god  Apollo  was  his  father. 
Even  the  annunciation  by  an  angel  to  Joseph, 
in  a  dream,  the  Christians  copied  from  the 
message  of  Apollo  to  Aristow,  Periktione's 
husband,  that  the  child  to  be  born  from  her 
was  the  offspring  of  that  god.  So,  too,  Romu- 
lus, one  of  the  founders  of  Rome,  was  said  to 
be  the  son  of  Mars  by  the  virgin  Rhea  Sylvia, 
and  he  was  suckled  and  nurtured  by  a  wolf  and 
was  afterwards  deified." 

The  birth  and  the  wonderful  manifestations 
that  are  related  of  Christ,  was  one  of  the  leg- 
ends peculiar  to  that  age.  To  enshroud  it  in 
mystery  and  to  make  it  miraculous  was  to  give 
to  him  the  prestige  of  a  god,  when  in  reality  he 
only  claimed  to  be  the  son  of  man;  and 
when  we  make  due  allowance  for  it  we  are 
left  to  wonder  how  it  was  ever  possible  that 
any  one  should  look  upon  him  otherwise  than 
as  a  good  man,  who  was  conceived,  born,  lived 
and  died  as  other  men.  How  he  could  be 
held  as  other  than  a  man  surpasses  my  compre- 
hension, and  how  the  intelligent,  thinking  peo- 
ple of  the  nineteenth  century  can  think  he  was 
a  god  is  evidence  of  credulity,  stupidity  and 
ignorance. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Gnostics  had  a  better 
and  more  correct  knowledge  of  the  teachings 
of  Christ  and  his  disciples  than  those  who 
claim  to  be  founders  of  the  modern  Christian- 
ity, which  did  not  have  its  rise  until  in  the 
third  century;  and  we  should  be  willing  to  give 
to  them  the  credit  of  being  as  honest  as  any 
other  sect.  And  if  we  can  believe  Nicholas  of 
Antioch,  a  man  of  honest  repute,  full  of  the 
holy  ghost  and  wisdom,  we  must  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  Christ  was  simply  a  good  man 
with  lofty  thoughts,  a  great  love  of  humanity, 
and  clear  perception  of  right,  added  to  his 
great  mediumistic  powers. 


CHAPTER  X. 


ALL   RELIGIONS  APPEAR   TO   HAVE  ONE   COMMON  ORIGIN.     THE    ORIGIN   OF    THE 
TRINITY,  CROSS,    SACRED  RIVERS,  MADONNA,  ARK,  DELUGE,  FISH  STORY. 


The  Olympus  of  the  Greeks  is  but  a  repro- 
duction of  the  Hindoo  Olympus.  The  legend 
of  Jason  and  the  Golden  Fleece  is  still  in  the 
mouth  of  every  one  in  India,  and  the  Iliad  of 
Homer  is  nothing  but  an  echo  and  enfabled 
souvenir  of  the  Ramayana,  a  Hindoo  poem,  in 
which  Rama  goes  at  the  head  of  his  allies  to 
recover  his  wife,  Sita,  who  had  been  carried 
off  by  the  King  of  Ceylon;  while  the  Greeks 
immortalized  it  in  Homer,  where  Paris  carried 
off  the  fair  Helen  to  Troy. 

yEsop  and  Babrias  copied  Hindoo  fables 
that  reached  them  through  Russia,  Syria  and 
Egypt.  Babrias,  though  a  Greek,  says  at  the 
commencement  of  his  second  proem  that  it 
came  from  the  East;  and  Jacolliot  says  that  no 
one  can  read  the  fables  of  the  Hindoo  Pilpay, 
or  the  Brahmin  Ramdamyayer,  without  being 
impressed  with  the  idea  that  they  are  the  orig- 
inal, and  that  ^Esop,  Babrias  and  La  Fontaine 
are  plagiarists,  and  that  the  Greek  and  modern 
fabulists  have  not  taken  the  trouble  to  change 
the  action  of  these  little  dramas. 

One  nation  copies  from  another  like  individ- 
uals, and  the  succeeding  generations  retain  the 
history  and  traditions  of  their  ancestors.  The 
Greek  language  and  religion  has  been  taken 
from  the  Hindoo.  As  the  Sanscrit  is  the  mother 
of  the  Greek  language,  so  the  Brahmin  religion 
and  laws  are  more  or  less  copied  into  the 
Greek  and  Roman  religion  and  laws.  Homer 
and  Virgil,  Sophocles  and  Euripides,  Plautus 
and  Terence,  copied,  altered  and  modified  the 
poetry  of  the  Brahmins;  while  Socrates,  Py- 
thagoras, Plato  and  Aristotle  have  drawn  their 
inspiration  from  an  older  and  a  more  ancient 
philosophy  of  the  Brahmins,  Egyptians  and 
Persians.      Titus,    Livius,    Sallust,    Herodotus 


and  Tacitus  are  our  models  as  historians,  and 
they  only  copied  from  others  still  older,  dating 
farther  back  in  time.  The  Justinian  code  has 
been  taken  from  the  Hindoo  code  of  Manu, 
as  it  bears  the  ear-marks  of  legislation,  mar- 
riage, filiation,  parental  authority,  tutelage, 
adoption,  property,  the  laws  of  contract,  de- 
posit, loan,  sale,  partnership,  donations  and 
testaments. 

Manu,  Manes,  Minos  and  Moses  were  all 
great  law-givers  and  legislators.  These  four 
names  overshadow  the  entire  ancient  world. 
They  appear  at  the  beginning  of  the  four  dif- 
ferent nations,  and  they  play  the  same  role, 
surrounded  by  the  same  mysterious  halo.  All 
of  the  four  were  legislators  and  high-priests, 
and  all  four  founded  theocratic  and  sacerdotal 
societies.  That  they  stand  in  relation  to  each 
other  as  predecessor  and  successor,  however 
distant,  seems  proven  by  the  similitude  of  name 
and  identity  of  the  institutions  they  created. 
"  In  Sanscrit  Manu  signifies  the  man  par  excel- 
lence, the  legislator.  Manes,  Minos  and  Moses, 
do  they  not  betray  an  incontestible  unity  of 
derivation  from  the  Sanscrit  with  the  slight  va- 
riations of  different  periods,  and  the  different 
languages  in  which  they  are  written,  Egyptian, 
Greek  and  Hebrew?" 

Manu,  the  philosopher  and  law-giver  of  In- 
dia, and  Manes,  the  Egyptian  legislator,  are  ex- 
tensively copied.  A  Cretan  visits  Egypt  to 
study  her  institutions,  which  he  introduces  into 
his  own  country,  and  history  preserves  his 
memory  under  the  name  of  Minos.  Moses  is 
the  liberator  of  the  servile  caste  of  Hebrews 
from  out  of  bondage  in  Egypt.  These  laws 
are  all  claimed  to  have  been  given  to  them  by 
God,  out   of  which  they  have   created   caste, 


92 


which  in  India  has  crushed  the  masses  down 
in  ignorance  and  superstition,  and  it  made  all 
subservient  to  the  Brahmins,  who  really  were 
the  governing  class.  Moses  created  the  order 
of  Levi,  the  priests  who  claimed  that  God 
governed  them;  but  they  ate  the  offerings,  col- 
lected the  tithes  and  ruled  the  people.  The 
Roman  people  were  divided  up  into  castes — 
priests,  senators,  patricians  and  plebeians — 
which  was  a  feebler  imitation  of  the  Hindoo 
society.  Such  has  ever  been  the  laws  and  reli- 
gions, "Divide,  corrumpe  ei  imperal"  divide, 
demoralize  and  govern. 

The  Vedic  civilization,  under  the  Hindoo 
priests  (the  Brahmins),  like  that  of  Egypt  un- 
der Manes,  crushed  the  masses  into  a  nation  of 
slaves,  which  deprived  them  of  all  social  and 
political  rights,  making  them  mere  machines  to 
produce,  that  the  privileged  classes  may  live 
in  luxury  and  splendor.  The  Roman  hierarchy 
for  ages  has  kept  the  masses  in  ignorance,  that 
they  might  govern  them,  and  at  one  time  their 
power  was  so  great  that  they  even  scourged 
kings  and  forced  them  to  do  penance. 

"Excommunication  was  nothing  else  than  a 
weapon  of  despotism,  picked  up  in  the  pagodas 
of  Brahma,  for  the  subjugation  of  people  and 
for  the  triumph  of  the  priests.  We  have  seen 
Savonarola  die  at  the  stake  for  having  exposed 
the  disorders  of  Alexander  VI;  and  the  pious 
Robert  of  France,  abandoned  by  his  friends 
and  his  faithful  servants,  obliged  to  bend  the 
knee  under  the  hand  of  a  religious  fanatic. 
Human  hecatombs  have  been  burning  on  the 
piles  of  faith  and  the  altar  reddened  with  blood. 
Ages  have  passed  away;  we  are  but  wakening 
to  progress  and  freethought.  But  let  us  expect 
struggles  without  end  until  the  day  shall  come 
when  we  shall  have  courage  to  arraign  all  sa- 
cerdotalism at  the  bar  of  liberty." 

The  Hindoos,  in  their  primitive  times,  had 
their  virgins  attached  to  the  service  of  the  pa- 
godas; some  tended  the  sacred  fire,  which 
burned  day  and  night  before  the  holy  trinity, 
and  never  was  allowed  to  go  out;  others,  on 
days  of  procession,  danced  before  the  car  or 
ark  as  it  was  carried  through  the  villages;  oth- 
ers, under  the  delirium  produced  by  an  excit- 
ing beverage  which  is  known  to  the  Brahmins, 
uttered  oracles  in  the  sanctuaries  to  fakirs  and 
sunniassys  (holy  mendicants),  or  to  extort  from 


the  amazed  people,  abundant  offering  of  fruit 
rice,  cattle  and  money;  others  sung  sacred 
hymns  at  the  sacrifices  and  festivals  and  at  fun- 
erals, religion  requiring  each  son  to  make  offer- 
ings on  the  recurring  anniversary  of  his  father's 
and  mother's  deaths,  and,  as  no  man  could  be 
admitted  into  heaven  who  had  not  a  son  to 
make  this  offering,  so  this  accounts  for  the 
great  desire  of  men  of  the  Aryan  race  to  have  a 
son  to  inherit  his  name.  The  consecrated  vir- 
gins of  Egypt  danced  before  the  statues  of  the 
gods;  the  pythonesses  of  Delphi,  the  priestesses 
of  Ceres,  who  delivered  oracles,  the  vestal  vir- 
gins of  Rome  who  tended  the  sacred  fire,  and 
the  sisters  of  charity,  were  but  heirs  to  the 
devadassa  of  India.  This  tradition  of  the 
woman,  virgin  and  priestess  is  so  much  of  an 
oriental  inspiration  that  we  see  all  the  nations 
of  antiquity  reject  it  as  they  gradually  emanci- 
pated themselves  from  superstition  and  mystery. 
If,  then,  it  appears  but  a  legacy  from  the  prim- 
itive cradle,  nothing  is  more  natural  than  to 
trace  it  to  the  country  whence  departed  the 
colonizing  tribes. 

Jesus  is  a  Sancrit  word  signifying  pure  es- 
sence, which  is  the  root,  the  radical  origin 
of  a  large  number  of  ancient  names  used 
alike  for  gods  and  distinguished  men,  such  as 
Isis,  the  mother  of  Horus,  the  female  principle 
in  nature,  the  Earth,  the  Egyptian  goddess; 
Josue,  in  Hebrew;  Joshua  the  successor  of 
Moses;  Josias,  king  of  the  Hebrews;  and  Jeseus 
or  Jesus,  in  Hebrew.  Jeosuah,  which  name 
is  very  common  with  the  Hebrews,  was  in 
ancient  India  the  tiller,  the  consecrated  epithet 
assigned  to  all  incarnations.  "  The  officiating 
Bohemians  in  temples  and  pagodas  now  accord 
this  title  of  Jeseus,  or  pure  essence,  or  divine 
emanation,  only  to  Chrisna,  who  is  alone  recog- 
nized as  the  word,  the  true  incarnation  by  the 
Vishnuites  and  freethinkers  of  Brahminism." 
(See  "India  Bible,"  by  Jacolliot,  page  108.) 
Hence  comes  the  word  Jesus  Christ,  from 
Jezeus — Chrisna — of  the  Sanscrit. 

Chrisna,  Buddha,  Zoroaster,  Christ  and  Mo- 
hammed have  all  played  a  human  role,  and 
God  has  judged  them  as  he  has  all  the  rest  of 
mankind,  according  to  the  good  they  have 
accomplished.  These  great  and  good  men 
started  out  for  a  high  and  noble  purpose,  but 
their  successors,  more  cunning  than  their  mas- 


93 


ters,  having  made  them  gods  to  smooth  their 
own  way,  present  themselves  to  the  people  as 
celestial  messengers,  and  thus  sanctify  their 
ambitious  purposes,  and  rule  and  govern  man. 
On  a  careful  and  critical  examination  they  all 
teach  the  same  thing;  all  tell  about  the  same 
story.  It  is  the  same,  revamped  to  suit  the 
age  and  the  nation  in  which  they  lived. 

The  Egyptian  god  Bacchus  was  brought  up  at 
Mysa,  and  is  famous  as  having  been  the  con- 
queror of  India.  In  Egypt  he  was  called  Osi- 
ris; in  India  Dionysius,  and  not  improbably 
Krishna  or  Chrisna,  which  means  a  savior,  as 
he  was  called  Adoneus,  which  signifies  the  Lord 
of  heaven,  or  the  Lord  and  giver  of  light  in 
Arabia,  and  liber  throughout  the  Roman  do- 
minions, from  whence  is  derived  our  term  lib- 
eral for  everything  that  is  generous,  frank  and 
amiable.  He  manifested  his  glory  in  the 
wine,  therefore  he  is  sometimes  called  the  god 
of  wine.  It  is  evident  that  he  was  one  of  the 
sun-gods  of  some  of  the  ancients,  as  we  find 
expressions  like  these  used  in  his  worship:  Io 
Terombe,  let  us  cry  unto  the  Lord;  Io  or  la 
Baccoth,  God  sees  our  tears;  Jehovah  Evan! 
Hevoe!  and  Eloah,  the  author  of  our  existence, 
the  mighty  God;  Hu  Esh,  thou  art  the  fire; 
Elta  Esh,  thou  art  the  life;  and  Io  Nissi,  O 
Lord,  direct  us;  which  last  is  the  literal  English 
of  the  Latin  motto  in  the  arms  of  the  city  of 
London,  retained  to  this  day,  "  Domine  dirige 
nos."  The  Romans,  out  of  all  these  terms, 
preferred  the  name  of  Baccoth,  out  of  which 
they  composed  Bacchus.  The  more  delicate 
ear  of  the  Greeks  was  better  pleased  with  the 
words  Io  Nissi,  out  of  which  they  formed  Dio- 
nysius. 

The  three  letters  I  H  S,  surrounded  with 
rays  of  glory,  that  are  so  often  seen  hanging  in 
the  Catholic  churches  and  burying  grounds, 
which  are  supposed  to  stand  for  Jesus  Homine- 
um  Salvator,  is  none  other  than  the  identical 
name  of  Bacchus,  Yes,  exhibited  in  Greek 
letters,  V  H  E,  (see  Hesychius  on  the  word 
V H E,  i.e.,  Yes,  Bacchus,  Sol,  the  Sun). 
And  the  feast  of  Bacchus  was  always  celebrated 
by  drinking  wine  and  eating  bread,  from  which 
the  Christians  derived  the  idea  of  the  sacra- 
ment. One  of  the  odes  of  Anacreon,  trans- 
lated,   reads   thus:     "To  arms!     But   I    shall 


drink;  boy,  bring  me  the  goblet,   for   I  would 
rather  lie  dead  drunk  than  dead." 

In  the  ancient  Orphic  verses,  sung  in  the 
orgies  of  Bacchus,  as  celebrated  throughout 
Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Syria,  Arabia,  Asia  Minor, 
Greece,  and  ultimately  in  Italy,  it  is  related 
how  that  god,  who  had  been  born  in  Arabia, 
was  picked  up  in  a  box  that  floated  on  the 
water,  and  took  his  name  Mises,  in  signification 
ot  his  having  been  saved  from  the  water,  and 
Bimater  from  his  having  had  two  mothers;  that 
is,  one  by  nature  and  another  who  had  adopted 
him.  He  had  a  rod  with  which  he  performed 
miracles,  and  which  he  could  change  into  a 
serpent  at  pleasure.  He  passed  the  Red  Sea 
dry-shod  at  the  head  of  his  army;  he  divided 
the  waters  of  the  rivers  Orontes  and  Hydraspus 
by  the  touch  of  his  rod  and  passed  through 
them  dry-shod.  By  the  same  mighty  rod  he 
drew  water  from  the  rock,  and  wherever  he 
marched  the  land  flowed  with  milk  and  honey. 
And  the  similarity  of  these  verses  shows  that 
Moses  copied  them  or  that  they  were  taken 
from  him. 

The  Egyptian  tau  or  cross  (T)  was  in  use 
many  centuries  earlier  than  the  period  assigned 
to  Abraham,  the  alleged  forefather  of  the 
Israelites,  for  Moses  directed  the  children  of 
Israel  to  mark  their  door-posts  and  lintels  with 
blood,  lest  the  "  Lord  God  "  might  make  a 
mistake  and  kill  them  instead  of  the  Egyptians, 
and  this  mark  is  a  tau,  the  identical  Egyp- 
tian handle-cross,  with  the  half  of  which  tal- 
isman Horus  raised  the  dead,  as  is  shown  on  a 
sculptured  ruin  at  Philae.  And  it  is  asserted 
that  the  rod  of  Moses,  which  he  used  to  per- 
form his  miracles  before  Pharaoh,  was  no  doubt 
a  crux  ansata,  or  something  like  it,  as  used  by 
the  Egyptian  priests.  In  the  ancient  Hebrew 
the  sign  of  the  cross  was  formed  thus  X,  but 
in  the  original  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  it  is  the 
the  same  as  a  perfect  Christian  cross  -j-. 

According  to  King  and  other  numismatists 
and  archaeologists,  the  cross  was  a  symbol  of 
eternal  life.  A  tau  or  Egyptian  cross  was  used 
in  the  mysteries  of  Bacchus  and  Eleusinia.  It 
was  laid  on  the  breast  of  the  initiate,  as  a  sym- 
bol of  the  "new  birth;"  that  his  spiritual  birth 
had  regenerated  and  united  his  astral  soul  with 
his  divine  spirit,  and  that  he  was  ready  to  as- 
cend in  spirit  to  the  blessed  abodes  of  light  and 


94 


gory.  The  tau  is  a  magic  talisman  and  at  the 
same  time  is  a  religious  emblem.  It  was 
adopted  by  the  Christians,  through  the  Gnos- 
tics and  Kabalists,  who  used  it  largely,  as  their 
numerous  gems  testify.  They  took  the  tau,  or 
handle-cross,  from  the  Egyptians,  and  the 
Latin  cross  from  the  Buddhist  museums,  who 
brought  it  from  India,  where  it  can  be  found 
to  have  been  in  use  for  two  or  three  centuries 
before  Christ.  The  cross  was  known  to  the 
ancient  Assyrians,  Egyptians,  Armenians,  Hin- 
doos and  Romans,  long  before  the  crucifixion 
of  Christ. 

The  Brah-matma,  the  chief  of  the  Hindoo 
initiates,  had  on  his  head-gear  two  keys,  which 
were  symbols  of  the  revealed  mystery  of  life 
and  death,  and  were  placed  cross-wise;  and  in 
some  of  the  Buddhist  pagodas  of  Tartary  and 
Mongolia,  the  entrance  to  a  chamber  within 
the  temple  is  generally  ornamented  with  a 
cross,  formed  of  two  fishes,  and  so  are  the 
zodiacs  of  the  ancient  Chaldeans  and  Buddhists 
represented  with  crossed  fishes.  And  even 
Solomon's  temple  was  built  on  these  founda- 
tions, forming  the  "triple  tau"  or  three 
crosses,  according  to  one  of  the  traditions  of 
ancient  Masonry. 

In  its  mystical  sense  the  Egyptian  cross  de- 
rives its  origin  from  its  former  use  as  an  em- 
blem of  the  realization  by  the  earliest  philoso- 
phers of  an  androgynous  dualism  in  every  man- 
ifestation of  nature,  which  proceeds  from  the 
abstract  idea  of  a  likewise  androgynous  or 
double-sexed  (male  and  female)  deity.  rIhe 
tau  or  Egyptian  cross,  in  its  mystical  sense  as 
well  as  the  crux  ansatcc,  represents  the  "  tree  of 
life"  while  the  Roman  cross,  on  which  Christ 
was  crucified,  was  called  the  "tree  of  infamy." 
The  crucifix  was  an  instrument  of  torture,  and 
was  common  among  the  Romans,  for  it  was 
unknown  among  Semitic  nations  until  con- 
quered by  the  Romans,  and  during  the  first 
two  decades  after  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  the 
a|K>stles  looked  upon  it  with  horror.  It  is  cer- 
tainly not  the  Christian  cross  that  John  had  in 
mind,  when  speaking  of  the  signet  of  the 
"  living  God,"  but  the  mystic  tau. 

Many  customs  found  in  Christendom  may 
be  traced  back  to  Egypt.  The  Egyptian  at 
his  marriage  put  a  gold  ring  on  his  wife's  finger 
as  a  token  that  he  entrusted   her    with   all  his 


property,  just  as  in  a  Church  of  England  mar- 
riage service  the  bridegroom  does  the  same 
thing,  saying,  "  with  all  my  worldly  goods  I 
thee  endow."  The  feast  of  candles  at  Isis  is 
still  marked  in  the  Christian  calendar  as  Can- 
dlemas-day. The  Catholic  priests  shave  their 
heads  as  the  ancient  Egyptian  priests  did  sev- 
eral thousand  years  ago.  The  surplice  of  the 
Episcopal  minister,  which  he  wears  when  read- 
ing the  liturgy  is  the  same  as  that  worn  by  the 
ancient  Egyptian  priest.  The  Pope  assuming  to 
hold  the  keys,  was  taken  from  an  Egyptian 
priest  at  Thebes  whose  "  title  was  keeper  of  the 
two  doors  of  heaven,"  (see  Sharpe's  "  Egyp- 
tian Mythology.")  All  the  forms  and  ceremo- 
nies of  the  Jews  bear  ear-marks  of  having  been 
borrowed  by  Moses  from  the  Egyptians;  "  the 
ark,"  "the  holy  of  holies,"  the  scapegoat,  the 
cherubim,  were  derived  from  the  sphynx.  Also 
the  rite  of  circumcision  was  practiced  in  Egypt 
as  early  as  the  fourth  dynasty,  says  Wilkinson, 
long  before  the  time  of  Abraham. 

The  Trinity. 

In  the  Book  of  Hermes,  the  origin  of  which 
is  lost  in  the  colonization  of  Egypt,  there  is  a 
reference  made  to  the  Hindoo  Chrisna,  accord- 
ing to  the  Brahmins,  and  it  enunciates  in  dis- 
tinct terms  the  trinitarian  dogma.  "The  light 
is  me,"  says  Pimander;  "the  Divine  thought;  I 
am  the  nous,  or  intelligence,  and  I  am  thy  God 
and  am  far  older  than  the  human  principle, 
which  escapes  from  the  shadow.  I  am  the 
germ  of  thought;  the  resplendent  word;  the 
Son  of  God.  Think  that  what  thou  seest  and 
hearest  is  the  verbum  of  the  master;  it  is  the 
thought  which  is  God,  the  Father.  The  celes- 
tial ocean,  the  ether,  which  flows  from  east  to 
west,  is  the  breath  of  the  Father,  the  life-giving 
principle,  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  they  are  not 
separated  and  their  union  is  life." 

The  trinity  of  the  Egyptians  was  a  triangle. 
Plutarch  says  that  the  Egyptians  worshiped 
Osiris,  Isis  and  Horus,  under  the  form  of  a 
triangle.  He  adds  that  they  considered  every- 
thing perfect  to  have  three  parts,  and  therefore 
their  good  god  made  himself  three-fold,  while 
their  god  of  evil  remained  single. 

The  ancient  Hindoos  had  a  Christ,  a  virgin 
"  mother  of  God,"  queen  of  heaven,  though 
Isis  is  also  by  right  the  queen  of  heaven,  and 


95 


is  generally  represented  carrying  in  her  hand 
the  crux  ansata  (-f )  or  cross.  In  one  of  the 
ancient  tombs  of  the  Pharaohs  there  is  a  figure 
of  the  birth  of  the  sun  in  the  form  of  a  little 
child  issuing  from  the  bosom  of  its  divine 
mother,  the  resplendent  golden  rays  darting 
forth  from  its  head,  which  was  intended  to  rep- 
resent the  rays  of  the  sun-god.  The  mono- 
gram or  symbol  of  the  god  Saturn  was  the  sign 
of  the  cross  with  a  ram's  horn  in  indication  of 
the  lamb  of  God.  Jupiter  also  bore  a  cross 
with  a  horn,  and  Venus  a  cross  with  a  circle. 

Among  the  Semitic  nations  we  can  trace  the 
trinity  to  the  prehistoric  days  of  the  fabled  Se- 
sostris,  who  is  identified  by  more  than  one  critic 
with  Nimrod  the  "mighty  hunter."  "Tell  me, 
O,  thou  strong  in  fire,  who,  before  me,  could 
subjugate  all  things?  and  who  shall  after  me?" 
And  the  oracle  saith  thus:  "First,  God,  then 
the  Word  and  then  the  Spirit."  (See  "  Ap 
Malal,"  liber  i,  cap.  iv.) 

Then  there  was  the  trinity  of  God,  earth,  at- 
mosphere; earth,  fire  and  water;  and  this  three- 
fold function  of  the  Divinity  evidently  gave  rise 
to  the  Hebrew  Jehovah,  or  Ye-ho-vah,  repre- 
senting the  Future,  the  Present  and  the  Past, 
and  from  this  idea  of  the  three  united  in  one 
has  given  us  the  trinity — Father,  Son  and  Holy 
Ghost — which  was  taken  from  the  three-fold 
deity  of  the  Hindoos,  which  antedates  that  of 
the  Jews,  who  understood  the  powers  of  the 
prism  and  the  breaking  of  the  rays  of  light  into 
red,  yellow  and  blue,  by  the  means  of  which 
they  were  able  to  calculate  and  make  astronom- 
ical calculations,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  trian- 
gle, with  its  three  sides  in  one,  they  described 
a  part  of  a  circle  which  represents  the  infinite 
and  is  an  important  figure  in  geometry,  next 
in  importance  to  the  circle  that  encloses  a 
globe,  which  is  the  most  perfect  form  ot  all 
bodies  and  figures,  and  represents  the  whole. 

There  is  no  doubt  of  the  great  antiquity  of 
the  trinity  in  India,  as  it  is  written  in  books,  in 
a  language  that  has  ceased  to  be  spoken  for 
thousands  of  years,  long  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  while  in  their  temples  and  ruins,  in  the 
old  cavern  of  Elephanta,  hewn  into  the  solid 
rock  at  a  time  so  remote  that  it  is  not  known 
in  history.  Here  the  traveler  beholds  with  awe 
and  astonishment,  in  the  most  conspicuous  part 
of  the  most  ancient  and  venerable  temple  of  the 


world,  a  bust  expanding  in  breadth  nearly  twen- 
ty feet,  and  no  less  than  eighteen  feet  in  alti- 
tude— a  bust  composed  of  three  heads  united 
to  one  body,  adorned  with  the  oldest  symbols 
of  Indian  theology,  and  thus  expressly  fabricat- 
ed to  indicate  the  one  God  in  his  triune  char- 
acter of  the  Creator,  Preserver  and  Regener- 
tor  of  mankind. 

The  Zoroastrians  or  sun-worshipers  had  a 
trinity  in  the  sun,  light,  fire,  flame,  three  mani- 
festations of  the  sun,  which  gave  rise  to  the  all- 
seeing  eye,  which  is  synonymous  to  that  of 
sun-worship,  which  Solomon  introduced  into 
the  order  of  Freemasonry,  which  he  took  from 
the  Egyptians  and  Assyrians. 

The  Persian  triplicate  deity  was  also  composed 
of  three  persons — Ormuzd,  Mithra  and  Ahri- 
man. 

The  Hindoos  had  three  in  their  trinity,  Brah- 
ma, Vishnu  and  Siva,  corresponding  to  power, 
wisdom  and  justice,  or  creator,  preserver  and 
destroyer  of  life,  which  in  their  turn  answered  to 
spirit,  force  and  matter,  and  the  past,  present 
and  future. 

The  Chinese  idol  Sampao,  consisted  of  three, 
equal  in  all  respects. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  had  their  triplet, 
Emepht,  Eicton  and  Phta;  and  this  triple  god, 
seated  on  the  lotus,  one  of  the  images,  can 
now  be  seen  in  the  St.  Petersburg  museum. 

The  Peruvians  supposed  their  god,  Tanga- 
Tanga,  to  be  one  in  three  and  three  in  one. 

The  ancient  Mexicans  had  also  a  trinity — 
Yzona  (Father),  Bacah  (Son)  and  Echvah  (Ho- 
ly Ghost)  and  they  said  they  received  the  doc- 
trine from  their  ancestors.  (See  Lord  Kings- 
borough's  "Anct.  Mex.,"  page  165.)  And 
these  ancient  Mexicans  or  Aztecs  had  a  Christ 
and  a  virgin  mother;  and  one  of  the  priests 
that  were  with  Cortez  said  that  the  devil  had 
evidently  informed  them  of  these  facts,  for  who 
else  could  have  given  them  that  information. 

All  these  facts  carry  us  back  long  anterior  to 
the  time  mentioned  in  the  old  Bible,  which  was 
taken  by  the  Egyptians  from  India,  and  by  the 
Israelites  carried  from  Egypt  to  Palestine. 
Moses  and  Aaron  learned  it  in  the  temples  from 
the  hierophants  or  priests,  who  were  learned 
in  all  the  religious  matters,  and  who  guarded 
their  secrets  with  most  sacred  vigilance.  For 
centuries  the  Egyptians  were  a  secluded  people 


96 


like  the  Chinese,  says  Herodotus,  and  the 
Greeks  by  stealth  drew  all  their  information 
from  them;  that  the  Egyptians  were,  at  an  early 
date,  undoubtedly  a  colony  from  India,  as  their 
religion  and  civilization  bear  its  ear-marks. 

Modern  Christanity  is  nothing  but  the  pure 
and  spiritual  doctrines  taught  by  Christ,  defiled 
by  paganism  and  superstition  which  have  been 
engrafted  on  it.  All  the  forms  and  ceremo- 
nies that  were  condemned  by  Christ  had  their 
origin  in  the  old  pagan  worship  of  idolatry. 
The  burning  of  the  fire  on  the  altar  and  the 
burning  of  the  incense  had  their  origin  in  the 
heathen  temples  thousands  of  years  before  the 
birth  of  Christ.  The  nuns  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  are  taken  from  the  vestal 
virgins,  and  the  monks  took  the  place  of  the 
Roman  augurs.  The  forms  of  churches  and 
cathredals  were  taken  from  those  of  the  ancient 
temples  of  the  heathen  gods.  These  temples 
were  first  constructed  for  tombs,  hence  the  idea 
is  still  prevalent  of  burying  the  dead  in  the 
churchyard  or  under  the  church  floor  or  altar. 

The  Papal  tiara,  which  is  the  crown  worn  by 
the  Popes  of  Rome,  the  so-called  successors  of 
St.  Peter,  is  the  same  as  that  worn  by  the  gods 
of  ancient  Assyria;  so  also  are  the  tonsure  and 
surplice  of  the  priests  copied  from  the  same 
source,  and  the  tinkling  bells  were  used  before 
the  altar  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  around  the  hem  of 
the  robe  of  the  high-priest  of  the  Mosaic  Jews; 
and  bells  were  also  suspended  in  the  pagodas, 
and  on  the  sacred  table  of  the  Buddhist.  The 
beads  and  rosaries  were  used  by  the  Buddhist 
monks  for  over  five  hundred  years  before  the 
birth  of  Christ,  and  the  cross  was  in  use  for 
many  centuries  before  it  was  adopted  as  a 
symbol  of  the  Christian  church,  as  a  secret 
sign  of  recognition  among  neophytes  and  adepts 
of  occultism.  It  is  a  Kabalistic  sign,  and 
represents  the  oppositions  and  quaternary  equi- 
librium of  the  elements.  It  is  also  found  in 
the  caves  and  ruins  of  the  prehistoric  man  of 
Europe,  Asia  and  America. 

The  cross,  the  miter,  the  dalmatica,  the  cope 
which  the  grand  lamas  (priests)  wear  while 
performing  certain  ceremonies  out  of  the 
temple,  the  service  with  double  choirs,  the 
psalmody,  the  exorcism,  the  censer  suspended 
from  five  chains  and  which  can  be  opened  or 
closed  at  pleasure,  the  benedictions  given   by 


the  lamas  by  extending  the  right  hand  over  the 
heads  of  the  faithful;  the  chaplet,  ecclesiastical 
celibacy,  religions  retirement,  the  worship  of 
saints,  the  fasts,  the  processions,  the  litanies, 
the  holy  water,  are  all  striking  analogies  that 
are  difficult  to  explain. 

Father  Bury,  a  Portuguese  missionary,  when 
he  beheld  the  Chinese  bonzes  (priests)  using 
rosaries,  praying  in  an  unknown  tongue  and 
kneeling  before  images,  exclaimed  in  astonish- 
ment, "There  is  not  a  piece  of  dress,  not  a 
sacerdotal  function,  not  a  ceremony  of  the 
courts  of  Rome  which  the  devil  has  not  copied 
in  this  country."  (See  Kesson,  "The  Cross 
and  Dragon,"  also  Father  Hue's  "  Recollections 
of  a  Journey  in  Tartary,  Thibet  and  China.") 

The  question  at  once  rises,  which  was  the 
original?  Did  the  Christian  Catholics  copy  the 
Buddhists,  or  did  the  Buddhists  borrow  from 
them?  The  rock-cut  monasteries  and  temples 
in  India,  the  records  of  China  and  .Ceylon,  all 
agree  in  placing  it  in  favor  of  the  Buddhists, 
who  existed  not  less  than  five  hundred  years 
before  Christ.  Says  Mr.  Hardwicke,  "  It  may 
have  been  possible  to  have  two  spontaneous 
growths,  but  more  probable  that  the  one  is 
copied  from  the  other." 

The  Hindoos  had  their  sacred  river  in  the 
Ganges,  where  they  bathed  and  purified  them- 
selves; so  the  Jews  had  theirs  in  the  river 
Jordan.  The  Jews  plagiarized  their  religion 
from  the  Hindoos,  as  the  Greeks  did  from  the 
Egyptians,  and  the  Romans  from  the  Greeks, 
so  that  upon  a  careful  scrutiny  of  all  the  ancient 
religions,  they  bear  the  ear-marks  of  one  origin  in 
India.  And  the  similiarity  of  these  religions 
is  so  great  that  the  modern  Hindoos  found 
fault  with  the  British  government  for  allowing  a 
temple  of  Vishnu  to  fall  to  ruins,  as  they  claim 
that  Chrisna  and  Christ  are  one  and  the  same 
person. 

Religions,  like  thoughts,  have  one  common 
origin  in  the  brain,  and  in  both  cases  the  ideas 
are  more  borrowed  than  original.  Symbolism 
is  often  used  to  convey  to  the  untutored  mind 
the  idea  of  some  great  truth;  but  frequently  the 
mind  cannot  yet  entirely  comprehend  it,  so 
that  the  common  mind  falls  down  and  worships 
the  image  instead  of  the  true  being  which  it  is 
intended  to  represent.  As  the  mind  becomes 
more    enlightened    it   sees   and    comprehends 


97 


these  truths  and  then  discards  the  idols  and 
images  and  looks  up  to  and  feels  the  great 
truths  in  his  own  mind. 

The  Madonna  is  only  the  reproduction  of 
Isis  under  a  new  name,  standing  on  the  crescent 
of  the  moon,  holding  her  infant  Horus  in  her 
arms,  which  represented  to  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians that  the  moon  followed  the  sun,  and  that 
Iris,  the  Earth,  with  her  child  Horus,  who  was 
the  son  of  Osiris,  the  sun-god,  the  ruler  of  the 
day,  and  the  son  followed  the  father;  that  night 
preceded  the  day.  Juvenal  says,  "That  the 
painters  of  Egypt  made  their  living  by  paint- 
ing the  goddess  Isis  and  her  son  Horus,  and 
exporting  them  to  Italy,  which  was  a  very  pop- 
ular picture  at  the  time  of  the  introduction  of 
Christianity  into  Rome,  and  was  by  the  priests 
substituted  for  and  called  the  Madonna,  the 
virgin  Mary  and  child."  (See  "Ten  Great 
Religions,"  page  254  ) 

In  the  explorations  of  the  ancient  ruins  at 
Philae,  Upper  Egypt,  which  antedated  the  birth 
of  Christ,  there  has  been  found  what  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  holy  family,  when  in  reality  it 
proved  to  be  Osiris,  Isis  and  Horus,  instead  of 
being  Joseph,  Mary  and  Jesus;  and  what  is 
still  more  remarkable,  that  in  the  old  temples 
of  India  they  are  represented  as  black,  while 
many  of  the  ancient  statues  of  Buddha  are 
represented  with  crisp,  curly  hair,  with  flat 
noses  and  thick  lips;  nor  can  it  be  reasonably 
doubted  that  a  negro  race  once  held  pre-emi- 
nence in  India.  Higgins  writes,  "  There  is 
scarcely  an  old  church  in  Italy  where  some 
remains  of  the  worship  of  the  black  virgin  and 
child  are  not  to  be  met  with."  This  is  strong 
evidence  that  they  were  taken  either  from  India 
or  Egypt. 

The  Holy  Communion  or  Lord's  Supper. 

The  Holy  Communion  or  Lord's  Supper  had 
its  commencement  in  the  Bacchic  mysteries, 
where  a  communion  cup  was  handed  around 
after  supper,  out  of  which  all  took  a  sip  of 
wine.  It  was  called  the  cup  of  Agathoda^mon. 
The  Orphite  rites  were  similar,  where  the  com- 
munion consisted  of  bread  and  wine  in  the 
worship  of  nearly  every  deity  of  any  import- 
ance. Epiphanius  tells  a  strange  story  about  a 
Gnostic  sect  that  celebrated  their  eucharist, 
having   three    vases   of  the  finest  and  clearest 


crystal  which  were  filled  with  white  wine,  and 
while  the  ceremony  was  going  on,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  all,  it  changed  to  a  blood-red,  then  a 
purple,  and  finally  into  an  azure-blue  color. 
Then  the  magus  handed  the  vases  of  wine  to  a 
woman  of  the  congregation,  asking  her  to  bless 
it.  Then  it  was  poured  into  a  larger  vase,  and 
after  much  prayer  and  devotion  it  began  to  boil 
and  rise  in  the  vase  until  it  ran  over. 

During  the  mysteries  wine  which  represented 
Bacchus  was  used,  he  being  of  Indian  origin. 
Cicero  mentioned  him  as  a  son  of  Thyone  and 
Nisus,  and  consequently  Bacchus  crowned  with 
ivy  or  kissos,  is  Chrisna,  one  of  whose  names 
was  Kissen,  or  Christ.  The  ancient  Greeks 
and  Romans  in  the  mysteries  used  wine  to  rep- 
resent Bacchus  and  bread  for  Ceres. 

The  Deluge. 

The  ancient  Chaldeans  and  Hindoos  had 
their  Adam  and  Eve,  their  Noah  and  the  flood, 
while  the  Bible  would  lead  us  to  believe  that 
the  Garden  of  Eden  was  located  on  the 
Euphrates,  and  that  the  ark  rested  on  Mount 
Ararat,  while  the  Hindoo  tradition  places  it  on 
the  Himalayas.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  man 
must  have  had  a  beginning,  and  that  there  has 
been  a  deluge  in  Central  Asia  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  the  tradition  of  which  can  be  traced  to 
every  country,  and  which,  according  to  Bunsen, 
happened  about  the  year  10,000  B.  C,  and  had 
nought  to  do  with  the  mythical  Noah  or  Nuah. 
A  partial  cataclysm  occurs  at  the  close  of  every 
geological  "age"  of  the  world,  which  does  not 
destroy  it,  but  only  changes  its  general  appear- 
ance. While  some  portions  are  submerged, 
others  are  elevated.  And  the  fossils  found 
lead  us  to  believe  that  new  races  of  men,  new 
animals  and  a  new  flora  evolve  from  the  disso- 
lution of  the  preceding  ones. 

The  Hindoo  tradition  says  that  Vaivasvata, 
who  in  the  Bible  becomes  Noah,  was  saved  by 
a  little  fish,  which  turned  out  to  be  an  avater 
of  Vishnu.  The  fish  warns  that  just  man  that 
the  globe  is  about  to  be  submerged,  that  all  the 
inhabitants  must  perish,  and  orders  him  to  con- 
struct a  vessel  in  which  he  shall  embark  with 
all  his  family.  When  the  ship  is  finished  he 
goes  on  board  with  his  entire  family,  taking 
with  him  the  seeds  of  all  plants  and  a  pair  of 
every  kind  of  animal;  then   the  heavens  open 


98 


and  the  rains  fall  and  the  entire  surface  of  the 
earth  is  covered  with  water.  A  gigantic  fish, 
armed  with  a  horn,  places  itself  at  the  head  of 
the  ark,  and  the  holy  man,  following  its  orders, 
attaches  a  cable  to  its  horn,  and  the  fish  guides 
the  ship  for  forty  days  and  nights  through  the 
raging  elements,  and  finally  landed  the  ark  on 
the  summit  of  the  Himalayas;  yet  among  all 
the  ancient  Egyptian  writings  there  is  no  men- 
tion of  a  deluge,  therefore  it  is  evident  that  it 
was  confined  to  Central  Asia,  if  it  ever  oc- 
curred at  all;  and  as  the  writings  of  the  ancient 
Hindoos  are  much  older  than  those  of  the 
Bible,  it  most  probably  was  taken  from  the 
Hindoo  by  the  Chaldeans,  and  from  them  by 
the  Jews.  But  it  is,  in  all  probability,  an  alle- 
gory representing  the  incarnation  of  the  spirit 
in  the  flesh. 

Noah  is  the  Chaldean  for  Nuah,  who  is  the 
king  of  the  humid  principle,  the  spirit  moving 
or  floating  on  the  waters  in  his  ark,  the  latter 
being  the  emblem  of  the  argha  or  moon,  the 
feminine  principle.  Noah  is  the  "spirit  "  fall- 
ing into  matter,  so  we  find  him  as  soon  as  he 
descended  to  the  earth,  planting  a  vineyard, 
drinking  wine  and  getting  drunk  on  it;  /'.  e.,  the 
pure  spirit  becoming  intoxicated  as  soon  as  it  is 
finally  imprisoned  in  matter. 

The  dagon  or  fish-man,  found  engraven  in 
stone  and  metal  of  the  ancients,  had  its  origin 
in  the  idea  that  man  sprang  from  fish.  The 
Japanese  have  a  singular  idol  formed  out  of  the 
body  and  tail  of  a  fish,  fastened  upon  the  head 
and  shoulders  of  a  monkey,  which  gave  rise  to 
the  idea  of  mermaids.  "The  Hindoo  god, 
Vishnu,  assumed  the  form  of  a  fish  with  a  hu- 
man head,  in  order  to  reclaim  the  Vedas,  lost 
during  the  deluge.  Having  enabled  Visvami- 
tra  to  escape  with  all  his  tribe  in  the  ark,  but, 
pitying  weak  and  erring  humanity,  he  remained 
with  them  for  some  time,  taught  them  how  to 
build  houses  and  cultivate  the  land.  He  re- 
mained on  land  in  the  day-time  and  went  to 
the  ocean  to  pass  his  nights.  "One  day  he 
plunged  into  the  water  and  returned  no  more, 
for  the  earth  had  covered  itself  with  vegetation, 
fruit  and  cattle." 

This  fable  of  Vishnu  disguised  as  a  fish  gives 
weight  to  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos,  es- 
pecially in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Vedas  and 
Manu  reckon  more   than   twenty-five  thousand 


years  of  existence,  as  proved  by  the  most  serious 
as  well  as  the  most  authentic  documents.  Few 
people,  says  the  learned  Halhed,  have  their 
annals  more  authentic  or  more  serious  than  the 
Hindoos. 

The  big  story  of  Jonah  and  the  whale  had  its 
origin  in  the  same  idea,  that  man  sprang  from 
out  of  the  fish.  Vishnu  is  evidently  the  Adam 
Kadmon  of  the  Kabalists,  for  Adam  is  the  Lo- 
gos, or  the  first  anointed,  as  Adam  second  is 
the  King  Messiah;  Adam  Kadmon  was  an  ema- 
nation of  Jehovah;  and  Adam  the  first  man  was 
the  first  materialized  spirit  of  man  clothed  in 
flesh;  having  lost  the  power  to  dematerialize 
was  forced  to  live  in  the  flesh  on  the  earth.  Be- 
ing androgynous,  as  all  angels  are,  and  falling  into 
deep  sleep  or  trance,  the  female  principle  was 
separated  by  drawing  her  life  principle  out  of 
his  side  and  materialized  in  the  material  form 
of  a  woman,  called  Eve  in  the  Bible. 

Lakmy,  or  Lakshmi,  the  passive  or  female 
counterpart  of  Vishnu,  the  creator  and  pre- 
server, is  also  called  Ada  Maya.  She  is  the 
"mother  of  the  world,"  Damatri,  the  Venus 
aphrodite  of  the  Greeks;  she  is  also  called  Isis 
and  Eve.  While  Venus  was  born  from  the  sea- 
foam,  Lakmy  springs  out  from  the  water  at  the 
churning  of  the  sea.  When  born  she  is  so 
beautiful  that  all  the  gods  fall  in  love  with  her. 
The  Jews,  borrowing  their  types  wherever  they 
could  get  them,  made  their  first  woman  after 
the  pattern  of  Lakmy.  It  is  a  curious  coinci- 
dence that  Viracocha,  the  Supreme  Being  of 
ancient  Peru,  means,  when  literally  translated, 
"  foam  of  the  sea." 

In  the  oldest  Hindoo  book,  Manu,  there  is 
a  passage  that  says,  "That  this  world  issued 
out  of  darkness;  the  subtle  elementary  princi- 
ples produced  the  vegetable  seed,  which  ani- 
mated first  the  plants.  From  plants,  life  passed 
into  fantastical  bodies,  which  were  born  in  the 
waters;  then,  through  a  series  of  forms  of 
plants,  worms,  insects,  fish,  serpents,  tortoises, 
cattle  and  wild  animals,  until  finally  man  was 
evolved.  This  is  in  accordauce  with  the  laws 
of  evolution,  as  laid  down  by  Darwin  and 
Huxley. 

"The  object  of  all  religions,"  says  the  Per- 
sian Hafiz,  "is  alike."  All  men  seek  their 
beloved,  and  is  not  all  the  world  love's  dwell- 
ing ?     Why   talk   of  a   mosque   or  a  church  ? 


99 


Hindoo  teachers  say,  "  The  creed  of  the  lover 
differs  from  other  creeds.  God  is  the  creed  of 
those  who  love  Him,  and  to  do  good  is  best 
with  the  followers  of  every  faith."  He  alone 
is  a  true  Hindoo  whose  heart  is  just,  and  he ; 
only  is  a  good  Mussulman  whose  life  is  pure.  ' 
"Remember  Him  who  has  seen  numberless 
Mahomets,  Vishnus,  Vivas,  come  and  go,  and 
who  is  not  found  by  one  who   forgets  or  turns 


from  the  poor."  "The  common  standpoint 
of  the  three  religions,"  says  the  Chinese,  "is 
that  they  insist  on  the  banishment  of  evil  de- 
sire and  do  good." 

So  we  see  in  all  religious  beliefs  a  commin- 
gling of  their  forms  and  ceremonies,  which 
goes  far  to  establish  the  fact  that  all  religions 
must  have  had  their  origin  from  a  belief  in  a 
state  of  future  existence. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


THE  EIGHT  GREAT  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD.     BRAHMINISM,  BUDDHISM,  ZORO- 

ASTERISM,  MOSAICISM,  CHRISTIANITY.  MOHAMMEDANISM, 

LAOTESEISM  AND  MODERM  SPIRITUALISM. 


Comparative  Theology,  like  comparative 
anatomy,  comparative  geography,  and  compar- 
ative philology,  is  yet  in  its  infancy.  It  is  a 
science  which  consists  in  the  study  of  the  facts 
of  human  history  and  their  relation  to  each 
other.  It  does  not  dogmatize;  it  observes, 
and  it  deals  only  with  phenomena  and  facts 
that  relate  to  the  spiritual  nature  in  man. 

By  comparing  the  various  religions  of  man- 
kind we  see  wherein  they  differ,  wherein  they 
agree,  and  what  appears  true  and  what  false. 
It  shows  both  sides  of  religion  and  that  as  it 
has  advanced  with  civilization,  it  has  lost  much 
of  its  severity,  and  that  a  higher  religion  and 
better  morals  must  find  root  in  the  decaying 
soils  of  past  religious  beliefs  and  traditions  of 
God,  duty  and  immortality  of  the  soul. 

The  duty  of  comparative  theology  is  to  do 
justice  to  all  the  religions  of  mankind,  to  strike 
out  all  debasing  superstitions  and  arrive  at  the 
truth.  All  religions  teach  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  future  rewards  and  punishments,  a 
hell  and  a  heaven.  The  basis  of  all  religions 
is  spiritism;  that  the  spirit  of  the  departed  lives 
and  has  its  existence  in  the  atmosphere  sur- 
rounding us. 

The  ablest  writers  on  comparative  theology 
are  Max  Muller,  Bunsen,  Burnouf,  Dollinger, 
Hardwicke,  St.  Hilaire,  Duncker,  Baur,  Renan, 
Cox,  and  J.  F.  Clarke,  author  of  the  "Ten 
Great  Religions."  These  writers  show  great 
learning  and  have  stripped  mythology  and  the- 
ology of  its  outward  forms  and  sacred  robes, 
showing,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  religions,  like 
civilizations,  are  the  outgrowth  of  older  reli- 
gions and  civilizations;  that  it  comes  from 
within;  that  it  is  a  part  of  man's  nature  to  be 
religious,  so   that  he  has  often  been  called  a 


religious  animal,  as  no  other  animal  offers  up 
prayers  or  supplications  to  the  Great  Spirit  of 
the  unseen  universe. 

All  the  principal  religions,  like  the  human 
race,  appear  to  have  had  their  origin  in  Asia, 
and  have  spread  thence  over  the  whole  civilized 
world.  Each  race  has  adopted  a  certain  relig- 
ion that  has  had  much  to  do  in  shaping  its  civ- 
ilization. Research  has  shown  that  India  is  the 
mother  of  civilization  and  religion;  that,  far 
back  in  the  night  of  time,  the  songs  of  the  Reg- 
Veda  were  written  in  Sanscrit.  It  is  the  oldest 
written  language,  and  is  the  mother  of  the 
Greek  language,  which,  from  its  perfection,  was 
claimed  by  the  Greeks  as  the  language  of  the 
gods — while  the  modern  Christians,  adhering  to 
the  idea  of  Moses  and  creation,  make  the  He- 
brew the  language  of  God  as  given  to  Adam 
and  Eve  in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

There  appears  to  be  a  material  connection 
between  language  and  religion.  As  language  is 
the  medium  through  which  the  soul  communi- 
cates its  thoughts  and  feelings  to  its  fellow- 
man,  so,  in  the  growth  and  development  of 
language,  we  are  enabled  to  trace  the  early 
ideas  and  views  of  primitive  man  far  back  in 
the  past,  long  before  there  was  ever  a  written 
language,  for  words  were  used  long  before  they 
were  reduced  to  writing,  so  that  the  philologist 
is  enabled  to  trace  back  the  Aryan  religion  to  a 
period  long  before  it  separated  into  different 
races.  So  that  by  the  use  of  words,  generic  in 
their  nature,  that  are  to  be  found  in  common 
use,  by  different  races  speaking  different  lan- 
guages— the  same  or  similar  words  are  used  to 
express  the  same  thing  or  ideas — it  is  evident 
that  far  back  in  the  past  these  different  races 
spoke  a  common  language;  and  when  the  gen- 


101 


eric  words  relate  to  God  or  religion,  then  it  fs 
evidence  that  their  religion  was  about  the  same. 
So  in  this  way  the  human  family  has  been 
traced  back  to  the  different  origins  and  centers 
from  which  it  diverged.  Each  of  these  diverg- 
ing races  carries  with  them  these  generic  words, 
with  their  meaning  about  the  same,  though 
they  may  and  often  do  change  the  nomencla- 
ture of  these  generic  words,  as  the  dialects  and 
provincialisms  tend  to  give  the  phonetic  sounds 
to  them. 

"If,"  says  Max  Muller,  "  we  would  learn  to 
be  charitable  in  the  interpretation  of  the  lan- 
guage of  other  religions,  we  shall  more  easily 
learn  to  be  charitable  in  the  interpretation  of 
our  own  language.  We  shall  no  longer  try  to 
force  a  literal  interpretation  on  words  and  sen- 
tences in  our  sacred  books,  which,  if  interpre- 
ted literally,  must  lose  their  original  purport 
and  their  spiritual  truth."  If  we  can  make 
allowance  for  mouth  and  lips  and  breath,  we 
can  surely  make  the  same  allowance  for  words 
and  their  utterance,  for  all  languages  have  their 
dialects.  There  is  a  high  and  there  is  a  low 
dialect;  there  is  a  broad  and  there  is  a  narrow 
dialect;  there  are  dialects  for  men  and  for  wo- 
men and  for  children;  for  clergy  and  for  laity; 
for  the  noisy  streets  and  for  the  still  and  quiet 
life  of  the  closets  of  students;  and  as  the  child 
advances  to  manhood  it  has  to  learn  its  lan- 
guage and  its  religion. 

The  religion  of  the  nursery,  with  baby  talk, 
ghost  and  witch  stories,  implants  a  supersti- 
tious religion  which  requires  a  severe  mental 
struggle  to  outgrow,  and  some  are  so  effemin- 
ate that  they  never  are  able  to  throw  it  off. 
Therefore  the  mass  of  mankind  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  their  fathers  and  adopt  their  ideas  of 
politics  and  business,  and  cling  to  the  religion 
of  their  mother;  therefore  the  masses  move 
slowly  in  politics  and  still  slower  in  religion. 
The  early  expressions  of  religion  were  no  doubt 
frequently  childish  and  mythical,  which  has 
tended  to  confuse  the  scholar  in  arriving  at 
what  was  the  real  religious  sentiment.  It  is 
impossible  to  express  abstract  ideas  except  by 
metaphor,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  whole  dictionary  of  ancient  religion  is 
made  up  of  metaphors,  and  consequently  there 
is  a  constant  struggle  in  the  mind  to  free  the 
material  from  the  spiritual. 


By  the  aid  of  comparative  philology  man 
has  been  enabled  to  trace  the  leading  races  and 
religions  back  to  three  centers  in  Asia — the 
Aryan,  the  Semitic  and  the  Turanic.  The 
Aryan  includes  the  Hindoo  and  the  European 
races,  for  that  reason  they  are  called  Indo- 
European,  and  some  call  them  the  Indo-Ger- 
manic.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  Indo-Euro- 
pean is,  perhaps,  the  best  term,  as  it  leads  to 
less  confusion.  This  race  at  a  very  early  date 
broke  up  into  four  parts.  The  Indians  or  Hin- 
doos went  southeast  into  India  by  the  way  of 
the  Punjaub,  while  the  Iranians  settled  in  Per- 
sia, and  reach  through  Hindoo  Koos  mountains 
east  to  the  country  now  known  as  Afghanistan, 
and  to  the  Himalaya  mountains,  and  west  into 
the  Caucasus  mountains,  which  was  at  one 
time  supposed  to  be  the  home  of  the  white 
race,  who  are  often  called  the  Caucausian  race. 
The  Greeks  and  Romans  entered  Europe  by 
crossing  the  Hellespont.  ./Eneas  fled  from 
Troy  and  settled  in  Italy.  The  Celts,  Teutons 
and  Sclavs  entered  Europe  from  the  north  side 
of  the  Black  Sea. 

The  Hindoo  branch  of  the  Aryan  family  still 
adheres  to  its  old  religion,  and  in  the  belief  of 
spirits  and  of  the  spirituality  of  God  in  the 
shape  of  a  Divine  mind  or  Sensorium,  from 
whence  all  divine  intelligence  is  drawn.  And 
their  religion  is  that  of  Brahminism  and  Bud- 
dhism. Their  sacred  books  or  bible  is  the 
Vedas,  written  in  the  Sanscrit,  and  from  this 
language  the  philologist  is  enabled  to  trace  the 
origin  of  the  Greek,  Latin,  and  the  German 
and  Anglo-Saxon  and  Engiish  languages. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Semitic  religion  of 
Abraham  dates  far  back  into  the  past,  long 
before  the  flood,  which  was  the  submerging  of 
some  portion  of  the  Eastern  hemisphere,  per- 
haps a  submerged  continent  which  is  now  called 
Lemuria.  It  lies  to  the  south  of  India,  and  is 
where  some  writers  locate  the  origin  of  man  on 
earth. 

The  Bible  says,  "And  Joshua  said  unto 
all  the  people;  thus  saith  the  Lord  God  of 
Israel :  your  fathers  dwelt  on  the  other  side  of 
the  flood  in  old  times,  even  Terah,  the  father 
of  Abraham  and  the  father  of  Nachor,  and 
they  served  other  gods.  *  *  *  Now,  there- 
fore, fear  the  Lord  and  serve  Him  in  sincerity 
and  truth;  and  put  away  the  gods  which  your 


102 


fathers  served   on  the   other  side  of  the  flood 
and  in  Egypt  and  serve  ye  the  Lord/' 

And  it  is  evident  from  this  declaration  of 
Joshua  that  before  the  flood  they  had  other 
gods,  and  it  might  have  been  that  they  belong- 
ed to  the  same  stock  or  root  as  the  Aryan 
races,  who  had  many  gods.  The  Brahmins 
claim  that  they  got  their  knowledge  of  God 
from  the  Pitri,  who  lived  before  the  flood. 
They  were  spirits  who  returned  to  earth  to  teach 
man  after  the  flood.  Here  we  get  a  glimpse  of 
the  remoteness  of  man  "and  his  religion,  and 
here  was  the  beginning  of  the  Hebrew  race  and 
religion;  the  idea  of  a  Jehovah  and  a  jealous, 
revengeful  God,  a  monotheisthic  God  without 
wife  or  children,  to  whom  Christianity  has  given 
a  son  equal  to  the  father,  and  Mohammedan- 
ism has  given  Him  a  prophet  who  has  charge 
of  His  earthly  affairs  and  of  the  admission  into 
Paradise. 

The  Semitic  nations  have,  on  the  contrary,  a 
different  word  for  their  deity,  El,  which  means 
strong,  and  throughout  all  the  Semitic  races  it 
is  a  term  applied  to  their  deity.  In  the  He- 
brew we  have  the  word  Beth-El,  the  house  of 
God;  ha-El,  the  strong  one. 

"  El  was  the  name  for  God  in  Babylon,  and 
was  worshiped  at  Byblis  by  the  Phoenicians, 
and  he  was  called  the  sun  of  heaven  and  earth. 
His  father  was  the  son  of  Elium,  the  most  high 
God,  who  had  been  killed  by  wild  animals. 
The  son  of  Elium,  who  succeeded  him,  was 
dethroned  and  at  last  slain  by  his  own  son  El, 
whom  Philo  identified  with  the  Greek  Kronos, 
and  is  represented  as  the  presiding  deity  of  the 
planet  Saturn,  with  the  name  of  El.  Philo 
connected  the  name  with  Elohim,  the  plural  of 
Eloah.  In  the  battle  between  El  and  his 
father,  the  aliens  of  El,  he  says,  '  were  called 
Elohim,  as  those  who  were  with  Kronos  were 
called  Kronivi.'  " 

Eloah  is  used  in  the  Bible  synonymous  with 
El.  It  means  gods  in  general  or  false  gods, 
while  in  Arabic  ilah  without  the  article  means 
a  god  in  general,  with  the  article  Al-ilah  or 
Allah  becomes  the  name  of  the  God  of  Moham- 
med. Hence  we  find  through  all  the  Semitic 
races  different  terms  for  God,  which  have  bfcen 
changed  but  little  from  El,  the  ibylonian 
name  for  God. 

The  majority   of   the   writers   01     philology 


claim  that  the  Semitic  language  had  its  origin 
in  a  different  root.  That  it  sprang  from  some 
wild,  ape-like  man  family  or  group,  far  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  Aryan. 

Elyon.  which  in  Greek  means  the  highest,  is 
used  in  the  old  Testament  as  a  predicate  of 
God.  It  occurs  also  by  itself  as  a  name  of 
Jehovah.  Melchizedek  is  called  emphatically 
the  priest  of  El-Elyon — the  priest  of  the  Most 
High  God.  It  is  evidently  derived  from  a 
Phoenician  word,  Elium,  the  High  God,  the 
Father  of  Heaven,  who  was  the  father  of  El. 
The  word  Jehovah  or  Jahveh  is  supposed  to  be 
derived  from  a  Chaldean  word,  Ido,  God.  It 
is  claimed  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  to  be  found 
on  inscriptions  in  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  Yet  it 
may  be  of  Hebrew  origin — after  their  separation 
from  the  main  branch  of  the  Semitic  race — and, 
therefore  was  a  local  word,  which  the  Jews  used, 
in  the  sense  of  the  one  true  God.  Abraham 
worshiped  God  as  Jehovah,  a«d  philologists 
differ  as  to  whether  it  is  of  Hebrew  origin. 

The  Semitic  nations,  Assyrians,  Babylonians, 
Phoenicians,  Carthagenians,  the  Moabites,  Phil- 
istians,  and,  sometimes,  the  Jews,  called  their 
great  or  supreme  God,  Bel,  or  Baal.  Before 
the  flood,  he  was  called  Bel.  Though  origin- 
ally one  Baal,  he  became  divided  into  many 
divine  personalities  through  the  influence  of 
local  worship.  So  we  hear  of  a  Baal-tsur, 
Baal-tsidon,  Baal-tare,  originally  the  Baal  of 
Tyre,  of  Sidon,  and  of  Tarsus.  At  Shechem. 
Baal  was  worshiped  as  Baal  barith,  supposed  to 
mean  the  God  of  treaties.  At  Ekron,  the  Phil- 
istians  worshiped  him  as  Baal-zebub,  the  lord 
of  flies  (hence  comes  our  Beelzebub);  while  the 
Moabites,  and  the  Jews,  too,  knew  him  also 
by  the  name  of  Baal-peor.  On  the  Phoenician 
coins,  Baal  is  called  Baal-shamayim,  the  Baal 
of  heaven,  which  is  the  Beelsamen  of  Philo, 
identified  by  him  with  the  sun,  and  makes  him 
a  sun- god. 

When  the  ancient  Babylonians  spoke  of 
Belus,  the  Supreme  God,  cutting  off  his  own 
head,  that  the  blood  flowing  from  it  might  be 
mixed  with  the  dust  out  of  which  men  were 
formed,  sounds  horrible  and  absurd;  but,  by 
this  myth,  they  only  convey  the  idea  that  there 
is  in  man  an  element  of  divine  life — that  we 
are  also  his  offspring.  The  ancient  Egyptians 
convey  about  the  same  idea  in  the  seventeenth 


103 


chapter  of  thier  "ritual,"  that  the  sun  mutilated 
himself,  and  that  from  the  stream  of  his  blood 
he  created  beings.  And  Moses  conveys  the 
same  idea  in  Genesis  when  he  says  that,  "God 
formed  man  from  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life." 

The  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Phoenicians,  ; 
Hebrews,  Syrian  tribes,  Arabs  and  Carthage- 
nians  all  belonged  to  the  Semitic  race.  It  is 
the  only  race  that  was  ever  a  rival  of  the  Aryan 
race.  The  Semitic  race  has  been  great  on  land 
and  sea.  From  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates 
and  that  of  the  Tigris,  its  sons  carried  their 
peculiar  civilization  west  to  the  Mediterranean 
sea,  whose  commerce  at  one  time  was  under 
the  control  of  the  Phoenicians,  whose  ships  ex- 
plored the  coast  and  made  settlements  at  Car- 
thage and  Cadiz,  and  sailed  as  far  north  as 
Great  Britain,  and  circumnavigated  Africa  two 
thousand  years  before  Vasco  de  Gama. 

The  languages  of  the  Semitic  nations  is  very 
closely  related,  being  almost  the  dialects  of  a 
single  tongue,  the  difference  between  them  be- 
ing hardly  greater  than  between  the  different 
dialects  of  the  German  race. 

The  Phoenician  language  is  almost  identical 
with  that  of  the  Hebrew,  and  the  Phoenicians 
had  the  Jewish  love  of  commerce,  trade,  and 
making  money.  By  some  historians  they  have 
been  called  the  ancient  Jews  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean. This  race  has  given  to  man  the  alpha- 
bet, the  Bible,  the  Koran,  commerce,  and  the 
greatest  military  genius  of  the  past,  Hannibal. 

The  peculiarities  of  these  races  have  been  in 
the  structure  of  their  language  and  the  forms  of 
their  religion,  which  consisted  mainly  of  mono- 
theism— a  belief  in  the  existence  of  one  per- 
sonal God  only — while  the  belief  of  the  Aryan 
races  was  that  of  polytheism — a  belief  in  the 
plurality  of  the  gods  or  invisible  beings  supe- 
rior to  man,  and  having  an  agency  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  world,  and  who  could  assist 
mortals,  a  kind  of  ancestral  worship  of  the 
spirits  of  ancestors,  friends,  heroes  and  states- 
men, who  became  gods. 

• '  The  highest  God  [of  the  Aryans]  received 
the  same  name  in  the  ancient  mythology  of  India, 
Greece,  Italy  and  Germany,  and  they  retained 
that  name,  whether  worshiped  on  the  Hima- 
layan mountains  (Olympus)  or  among  the  oaks 
of  Dodona,  on  the  Capitol,  or  in  the  forest  of 


Germany.  *  *  *  We  have  in  the  Yedas 
the  invocation  Dyans-pitar,  the  Greek, 
i iarep,  the  Latin  Jupiter,  which  means  in  all 
three  languages  what  it  meant  before  these 
languages  were  torn  asunder — it  means  Heav- 
enly Father.  It  did  not  mean  idolatry,  or 
nature-worship,  but  the  Great  Spirit  that  dwelt 
in  the  sky,  the  source  of  all  life  and  light,  from 
which  all  intelligence  and  good  has  emana- 
ted." (See  Max  Muller's  "  Science  of  Reli- 
gion.") 

The  ancient  Greek  and  Roman  religion  is 
evidently  of  Aryan  origin,  as  it  is  illustrated  in 
Homer,  Hesiod  and  Virgil.  They  believed  in 
tutelary  and  ancestral  spirits,  though  their 
religion  had  become  much  mixed  with  that  of 
Egypt  and  with  the  Semitic  religion,  which 
they  introduced  into  their  mythology. 

There  have  been  two  streams  of  religion 
flowing  through  two  channels;  one  the  Aryan 
and  the  other  the  Semitic;  one  from  the  plains 
of  the  Euphrates  to  the  Jordan  and  to  the 
Mediterranean,  while  the  other  has  flown  from 
the  Indus  to  the  Thames,  through  the  middle 
of  Europe,  among  the  blonde  race,  while  the 
former  has  been  engrafted  in  the  dark  races  in 
the  south  of  Europe,  in  a  modified  form  of  the 
monotheistic  Semitic  religion  —  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion. 

While,  in  a  still  more  modified  form,  it  has 
spread  over  the  whole  of  middle  and  northern 
Europe,  where  it  is  known  as  Protestantism, 
which  is  more  liberal  in  its  views  and  loses 
much  of  its  monotheistic  nature  and  becomes 
more  spiritual.  The  anthropomorphic  idea  of 
an  individual  God  meets  with  but  little  favor 
from  the  Indo-Germanic  races,  who  are  fast 
falling  into  the  spiritual  belief,  which  was  the 
original  religion  of  the  Aryan  race,  before  it 
became  engrafted  on  Christianity,  which  was  a 
departure  from  the  monotheistic  belief  of  the 
Semitic  races.  As  the  Christian  religion  is 
more  Brahminical  than  Mosaical,  it  is  a  rein- 
carnation of  Chrisna  or  Buddha,  and  it  is  more 
humane  and  not  tyrannical,  like  that  of  the 
Mosaic. 

The  Hindoo  branch  of  the  Aryan  family, 
like  the  Hebrew  branch  of  the  Semitic  family, 
has  produced  two  religious  books,  or  two  reli- 
gions, one  being  the  outgrowth  of  the  other. 
The  Hindoos   have  given  rise  to  Brahminism, 


104 


and  Buddhism  is  its  outgrowth.  The  He- 
brew religion  had  its  origin  in  Mosaicism,  and 
its  outgrowth  is  Christianity.  The  Ira- 
nians— the  ancient  Persians — a  branch  of  the 
Aryan  race,  had  another  religion  known  as  Zo- 
roasterism,  which  is  found  in  the  Zend-Avesta, 
and  draws  much  from  the  old  Vedas,  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Brahmins.  There  is  still  another 
branch  of  the  Semitic  race,  the  Arabs,  which 
has  given  to  the  world  another  religion  known 
as  Mohammedanism,  the  outgrowth  of  the 
old  Bible,  or  rather  the  old  Testament,  which 
has  respect  for  Christ  as  a  prophet,  but  differs 
with  Christianity  as  to  his  divine  origin. 

The  old  monotheisthic  doctrine  of  Moses, 
taught  in  the  old  Testament,  that  there  is  but 
one  God  and  Moses  is  his  prophet,  is  now  em- 
braced by  the  entire  Semitic  race,  so  that  prac- 
tically this  race  has  again  returned  to  its  orig- 
inal belief  in  one  God — a  man-like  God,  as 
Moses  says,  "God  created  man  in  his  own 
image,"  and  it  can  therefore  be  claimed  that 
he  is  in  the  shape  and  form  of  a  man,  and  this 
man-like  God  punishes  as  well  as  offers  rewards 
and  grants  forgiveness  of  sin  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Prophet.  So  thousands  flock  to 
Mecca,  as  Christians  do  to  Jerusalem,  to  do 
homage  to  these  sacred  places. 

Christianity  was  an  improvement  on  Mosaic- 
ism; so  was  Buddhism  an  improvement  on 
Brahminism;  and  both  tended  to  purify  and 
better  the  condition  of  the  religious  sentiment 
of  the  people.  Christ,  though  a  Jew,  was 
rejected  by  the  Jews,  but  his  religious  senti- 
ment found  lodgment  among  the  gentiles — the 
Indo-European  races — but  never  was  very  pala- 
table to  the  Semitic  races,  which  clung  to  the 
monotheistic  idea  of  a  man-like  God.  The 
doctrine  of  the  trinity  was  something  they 
could  never  comprehend,  and  so  they  readily 
fell  into  the  Mohammedan  religion,  as  enun- 
ciated by  its  great  prophet,  who  said,  "There 
is  but  one  God  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet," 
while  the  Jews  claim  there  is  but  one  God  and 
Moses  is  his  prophet. 

The  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Phoenicians  and 
Carthagenians  had  a  similar  religion.  They 
believed  in  a  Supreme  God,  called  by  different 
names — Ira,  Bel,  Set,  Hadad,  Moloch,  Che- 
mosh,  Jaoh  El,  Adon  and  Asshur.  All  be- 
lieved  in   subordinate   and   secondary    beings 


emanating  from  this  Supreme  Being,  who  were 
his  manifestations  to  the  world,  and  who  were 
the  rulers  of  the  planets.  Like  other  panthe- 
istic religions,  the  custom  prevailed  among  the 
Semitic  nations  of  promoting  first  one  and  then 
the  other  deity  to  be  the  supreme  object  of 
worship.  Among  the  Assyrians,  as  among  the 
Egyptians,  the  gods  were  often  arranged  in 
triads,  as  that  of  Anu,  Bel  and  Ao.  Anu  or 
Aannes  wore  the  head  of  a  fish,  Bel  wore  the 
horns  of  a  bull,  and  Ao  was  represented  by  a 
serpent.  Moses  is  frequently  represented  as 
having  a  ram's  horn  on  the  side  of  his  head. 

Brahminism,  like  the  Church  of  Rome,  es- 
tablished a  system  of  sacramental  salvation  in 
the  hands  of  a  sacred  order.  Buddhism,  like  Pro- 
testantism, revolted  and  established  a  doctrine 
of  individual  salvation,  based  on  personal  char- 
acter. Brahminism,  like  the  Church  of  Rome, 
teaches  an  exclusive  Spiritualism,  glorifying  pe- 
nances and  martyrdom,  and  considers  the  body 
the  enemy  of  the  soul.  But  Buddhism  and 
Protestantism  accept  nature  and  its  laws,  and 
make  it  a  religion  of  humanity  as  well  as  of 
devotion.  There  may  be  some  exceptions,  but 
the  rule  generally  applies. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  Brahmin- 
ism place  the  essence  of  religion  in  sacrifices. 
The  daily  sacrifice  of  mass  is  the  central  fea- 
ture of  the  former,  while  Protestantism  and 
Buddhism  save  the  soul  by  teaching.  In  the 
Roman  Church  the  sermon  is  subordinate  to 
mass,  while  in  Protestantism  and  Buddhism 
sermons  are  the  main  instruments  by  which 
souls  are  saved. 

Brahminism  is  a  system  of  inflexible  castes; 
the  priestly  order  is  made  distinct  and  supreme. 
So  in  Romanism  the  priesthood  alone  consti- 
tute the  church,  while  in  Buddhism  and  Pro- 
testantism the  laity  regain  their  rights.  Bud- 
dhism in  Asia,  like  Protestantism  in  Europe 
and  America,  is  a  revolt  of  nature  against  spirit, 
of  humanity  against  caste,  of  individual  free- 
dom against  the  despotism  of  an  order,  of  sal- 
vation by  faith  against  salvation  by  sacrament. 

While  Buddhism  is  often  called  the  Protest- 
antism of  the  East,  it  has  many  of  the  forms 
and  ceremonies  of  Romanism.  The  chanting 
of  prayers,  counting  of  beads,  burning  of  in- 
cense and  candles  before  the  image  of  the  vir- 
gin Mary,  called  the  queen  of  heaven,  having 


105 


an  infant  in  her  arms  and  holding  a  cross. 
While  Buddhism  makes  God  or  the  good  and 
heaven  to  be  equivalent  to  nothing  or  repose, 
it  intensifies  and  exaggerates  evil.  Though 
heaven  is  a  blank,  hell  is  a  very  solid  reality. 
It  is  present  and  future  too;  everything  in  the 
thousand  hells  of  Buddhism  is  painted  as  viv- 
idly as  in  the  hell  of  Dantes.  God  has  disap- 
peared from  the  universe  and  in  his  place  is' 
only  the  inexorable  law,  which  grinds  on  for- 
ever. It  punishes  and  rewards,  but  has  no 
love  in  it.  It  is  only  dead,  cold,  hard,  cruel, 
unrelenting  law.  Yet  Buddhists  are  not  athe- 
ists any  more  than  a  child  who  has  never  heard 
of  God.  A  child  cannot  be  either  deist  or 
atheist,  because  it  has  no  theology. 

The  platonic  philosophy  was  able  to  grasp 
and  hold  the  idea  of  God  and  man,  the  infinite 
and  finite,  the  eternal  and  the  temporal. 
Christianity  recognizes  God  as  the  infinite  and 
eternal,  but  recognizes  also  the  world  of  time 
and  space  as  real.  Man  exists  as  well  as  God; 
we  love  God,  we  must  love  man  too.  Brahmin- 
ism  loves  God,  but  not  man;  it  has  piety,  but 
no  humanity.  Buddhism  loves  man,  but  not 
God;  it  has  humanity,  no  piety;  if  it  has  piety 
it  is  by  a  beautiful  want  of  logic,  its  heart  being 
wiser  than  its  head. 

Christianity  takes  all  the  good  there  is  in  the 
Buddhist  doctrine  and  gives  man  a  live  God, 
a  soul,  a  heaven,  and  a  hereafter.  Buddhism 
makes  man  struggle  up  to  God,  while  Christian- 
ity makes  God  come  down  to  man,  and  unites 
all  in  one  vast  brotherhood. 

For  further  information  I  refer  you  to  the 
"Esoteric  Buddhism,"  by  Sinnett: 

"The  one  universal  spirit  comprehending 
eternal  matter,  motion,  space  and  duration, 
evolves  the  boundless  cosmos,  comprising 
countless  solar  systems,  each  consisting  of  seven 
planetary  chains  of  seven  planets  each. 

"Evolution  takes  a  like  course  through  each 
planetary  chain,  the  members  of  which  are 
intimately  bound  together  by  subtile  currents 
and  forces.  The  passage  of  individual  spiritual 
entities  round  this  chain  constitutes  the  evolu- 
tion of  man,  which  is  still  in  progress.  There 
are  seven  kingdoms  of  nature.  Of  the  three 
lowest  Western  science  knows  nothing.  The 
mineral,  vegetable,  animal  and  man  complete 
the  list,  the  latter  including    beings  of  higher 


organization  than  we  are  yet  familiar  with. 
The  wave  of  existence  makes  seven  rounds 
through  the  planetary  chain,  each  sphere  being 
fitted  for  a  different  phase  of  progress,  regarding 
both  animate  and  inanimate  nature.  Darwin's 
c  Missing  Link '  is  picked  up  here.  Man, 
whose  destiny  is  the  principal  object  of  inquiry, 
on  each  round  develops  in  each  sphere  seven 
great  root  races,  each  producing  seven  sub- 
races,  again  divided  into  seven  branches,  and  it 
is  well  enough  to  know  that  we  are  of  the 
fourth  round,  fifth  race  and  seventh  sub-race; 
or,  in  other  words,  just  beyond  the  middle 
point  of  our  cyclic  career.  Considering  that 
the  individual  nomad  makes  its  progress  by 
successive  incarnations  of  not  less  than  two  to 
each  branch  race,  and  that  the  evolution  of  our 
present  root-race  began  about  one  million  years 
ago,  the  magnitude  and  duration  of  the  scheme 
begins  to  dawn  upon  the  mind,  and  on  learning 
that  beyond  the  seven  rounds  of  each  planetary 
chain  lies  the  solar,  and  beyond  that  universal 
cycle,  imagination  retires  baffled  from  the  at- 
tempt to  realize  the  plan. 

"Seven  distinct  principles  enter  into  the 
constitution  of  man;  the  body,  vitality,  the 
astral  body,  the  animal  soul,  the  human  soul, 
the  spiritual  soul,  and  spirit.  The  first  needs 
no  explanation.  The  second  is  matter  in  its 
aspect  as  force.  Though  immaterial,  its  affinity 
for  gross  matter  prevents  its  separation  from  it 
except  by  instant  translation  to  some  other 
particle  or  mass.  We  get  the  idea  in  the 
modern  theory  of  the  '  Persistence  of  Force.' 
The  astral  body  is  the  eternal  duplicate  of  the 
physical  body — its  original  design.  It  guides 
vitality  in  its  work  on  the  physical  particles, 
and  causes  it  to  build  up  the  shape  which  these 
assume.  Query:  Has  this  any  bearing  on 
that  stumbling  block  of  modern  biology,  the 
subsequent  determination  of  apparently  identi- 
cal embryos?  These  three  lower  principles  are 
of  the  earth  earthy,  perishable  in  their  nature 
as  a  single  entity,  and  done  with  by  man  at  his 
death.  The  animal  soul  is  the  first  of  the 
principles  which  attaches  to  man's  higher 
nature.  It  is  the  seat  of  the  desires  and  the 
vehicle  of  will,  influencing,  and  influenced  by 
the  fifth  principle,  the  human  soul.  This  is 
the  seat  of  reason  and  memory,  and  in  the 
majority  of  mankind  is  not  yet  fully  developed. 

o»  -nre 
UNIVERSITY 


106 


It  follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  sixth 
principle,  the  spiritual  soul,  is  yet  in  embyro. 
Yet  the  sixth  and  also  the  seventh  principle,  or 
pure  spirit,  inheres  in  man's  nature,  and  the 
human  soul  is  capable  of  assimilating  them  in 
its  progress  to  perfection.  This  seven-fold 
nature  of  man  is  the  key  to  his  destiny.  At 
death  the  three  lower  principles  are  finally 
abandoned  by  that  which  is  really  man  himself, 
the  Ego,  and  the  remaining  principles  escape 
to  Devachan,  the  world  of  spirits.  A  contest 
ensues,  the  fourth  principle  drawing  the  fifth 
earthward,  while  the  sixth  and  seventh  attract 
it  upward.  The  lower  instincts,  impulses  and 
recollections  of  the  fifth  adhere  to  the  fourth, 
while  its  most  elevated  and  spiritual  portions 
cling  to  the  sixth  and  seventh.  Devachan  is  a 
state,  not  a  locality,  in  which  the  soul  experi- 
ences a  subjective  existence.  The  karma  of 
physical  existence,  that  is,  the  affinities  for  good 
and  evil,  generated  by  man  during  objective 
life,  determine  the  duration  and  character  of  the 
subjective  life.  Like  earthly  existence  it  has 
its  season  of  infancy,  prime  and  exhaustion, 
passing  through  oblivion,  not  into  death,  but 
birth,  reincarnation  and  the  resumption  of 
action  which  begets  a  new  karma,  to  be  worked 
out  in  another  term  of  devachan.  So  the 
process  goes  on  from  race  to  race,  from  sphere 
to  sphere,  from  round  to  round,  until  perfected 
humanity  attains  its  destiny  in  the  repose  of 
Nirvana;  not  the  Nirvana  of  popular  miscon- 
ception— annihilation — but  the  sublime  state  of 
conscious  rest  in  Omniscience.  'The  dew- 
drop  slips  into  the  shining  sea.' 

"Fantastic  and  absurd  as  much  of  this 
'  Theory  of  Nature'  may  appear,  it  cannot  fail 
in  some  respects  to  arouse  earnest  attention. 
Is  it  nothing  that  ancient  religion  and  modern 
science  clasp  hands  across  the  interval  of  thirty 
centuries  ? 

"The  most  prominent  and  yet  unsettled 
theories  of  modern  thought,  the  nebular 
hypothesis,  evolution,  the  descent  of  man,  du- 
bious problems  in  biology,  ethnology  and  kin- 
dred sciences  are  incorporated  with  and  made 
a  part  of  an  ancient  religo-philosophic  system, 
and  besides  the  grand  sweep  of  these  Oriental 
generalizations,  the  speculations  of  modern 
science  seems  timid,  tentative  and  feeble. 

"Is  it  possible  that  our  Western  civilization 


does  not  embrace  all  that  is  known  of  nature 
and  man  ?  That  along  other  lines  of  inquiry, 
and  following  methods  strange  and  unsatisfactory 
to  us,  other  men  have  through  centuries  pushed 
their  investigations  and  stored  up  the  results  in 
the  archives  of  secret  associations;  and  that 
now,  when  modern  thought,  released  •  from 
mediaeval  fetters,  is  preparing  the  way  for  the 
^recognition  of  truths  in  nature,  hitherto  un- 
known or  denounced,  these  stores  are  to  be 
opened  to  our  view  to  prove  the  coherence  of 
all  truth?" 

The  religions  of  Persia,  Egypt,  Greece  and 
Rome  have  come  to  an  end,  having  shared  the 
fate  of  their  civilization,  and  while  Brahma, 
Buddha,  India  and  Islam  have  been  arrested, 
Christianity  has  taken  a  milder  form,  and  a 
new  religion  called  modern  Spiritualism  has 
sprung  up,  which  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
has  spread  over  the  whole  civilized  world,  mak- 
ing inroads  upon  all  other  religions.  It  now 
numbers  not  less  than  twenty-five  millions,  of 
the  most  intelligent  advanced  thinkers  of  the 
age,  while  the  Christian  religions  vary  from  one 
hundred  and  twenty  to  one  hundred  and  seventy 
millions,  the  Buddhist  from  two  hundred  and 
twenty-two  to  three  hundred  and  twenty  mill- 
ions, the  Mohammedans  from  one  hundred  and 
ten  to  one  hundred  and  sixty  millions,  the 
Brahmins  from  one  hundred  and  eleven  to  one 
hundred  and  thirty  millions,  the  Jews  from 
four  to  six  millions.  That  of  the  Chinese  re- 
ligions we  have  no  figures  to  go  by. 

M.  Hubner  gives  the  following  religious  sta- 
tistics, comprising  the  leading  religions  of  the 
world: 

christians,  400,000,000. 

Roman  Catholics 200,000,000 

Protestants 1 10,000,000 

Greeks 80,000,000 

Various  other  sects 10,000,000 

NON-CHRISTIANS,    992,500,000. 

Buddhists 500,000,000 

Brahmins 150,000,000 

Mohammedans 80,000,000 

Israelites 6,500,000 

Unknown  different  religions....  240,000,000 

Unknown  religions 16,000,000 


Total 1,392,500,000 


107 


CALlf 


It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  teachings 
of  Confucius,  which  are  rather  a  philosophy 
than  a  religion,  are  among  the  oldest  we  have 
record  of,  while  that  of  Lao-tse  and  Tao-ism, 
its  contemporary,  was  founded  on  that  of  spir- 
itism. Herodotus,  who  traveled  in  Egypt  450 
B.  C,  gives  us  an  account  of  the  monuments 
in  that  country,  in  which  were  found  China 
ware,  with  Chinese  mottos,  which  Rosellini 
believes  to  have  been  imported  from  China  by 
kings  contemporary  with  or  before  the  time  of 
Moses.  There  have  been  similar  vases  found 
in  the  ruins  of  Troy,  that  go  to  prove  that 
China  was  a  highly  civilized  nation  long  before 
the  siege  of  Troy,  and  if  Chinese  history  is  to 
be  relied  on,  it  will  take  us  back  into  the  gray 
mist  of  the  past  some  twenty-five  thousand 
years,  and  it  is  now  generally  admitted  that 
Confucius  lived  at  least  five  hundred  and  fifty 
hears  before  the  Christian  era. 

Chronologists  differ  as  to  which  is  the  oldest 
civilization,  Egypt  or  India.  The.  Greeks  and 
Romans  trace  back  to  Egypt,  and  for  a  long 
period  of  time  it  was  thought  that  Egypt  was 
the  cradle  of  civilization.  But  learned  philol- 
ogists and  ethnologists  contend  that  India  is 
the  oldest  in  the  arts  and  has  the  oldest  reli- 
gions. Others  again  claim  that  they  are  differ- 
ent and,  perhaps,  spontaneous  developments. 
Plato  gives  us  an  intimation  that  the  Egyptians 
had  knowledge  of  the  submerged  continent  of 
Atlantis.  And  from  the  similarity  of  the  tem- 
ples and  pyramids  in  Central  America  it  might 
have  been  possible,  at  a  very  remote  period, 
that  these  countries  had  intercourse  with  each 
other. 

Every  religion  has  been  an  outgrowth  of  pre- 
ceding religious  faiths.  Back  of  all  religions 
and  civilizations  there  is  an  older  religion  and 
civilization.  Palestine  had  been  colonized  by 
Arab  tribes  from  Idumea  and  Phoenicia  long 
before  it  was  invaded  by  the  children  of  Israel 
under  the  leadership  of  Joshua  and  Moses. 
Eventually  they  became  more  or  less  consoli- 
dated as  the  kingdoms  of  Samaria  and  Judea. 
Their  fables,  legends,  traditions  and  family 
religions  were  more  or  less  amalgamated  and 
nationalized  under  the  name  of  Judea. 

"  The  greater  part  of  the  gods  of  all  nations 
were  ancient  heroes,  famous  for  their  achieve- 
ments and  their  worthy  deeds,  and  were  such 


as  kings,  generals  and  founders  of  cities.  To 
these  some  added  the  splendid  and  useful  ob- 
jects in  the  natural  world,  as  the  sun,  moon 
and  stars,  and  some  were  not  ashamed  to  pay 
divine  honors  to  mountains,  rivers,  trees,  etc. 
The  worship  of  these  deities  consisted  in  cere- 
monies, sacrifices  and  prayers.  The  ceremo- 
nies were  for  the  most  part  absurd  and  ridicu- 
lous, and  thoroughly  debasing,  obscene  and 
cruel.  The  prayers  were  truly  insipid  and  void 
of  piety,  both  in  form  and  matter.  The  priests 
who  presided  over  this  worship  basely  abused 
their  authority  to  impose  on  the  people.  The 
whole  pagan  system  had  not  the  least  efficacy 
to  produce  and  cherish  virtuous  emotions  in  the 
soul,  because  the  gods  and  goddesses  were  pat- 
terns of  vice,  and  the  priests  bad  men,  and  the 
doctrines  false."  (See  Mosheim's  "Church 
History.") 

The  narrow  creeds  excluding  God,  the  Fath- 
er, from  any  communication  with  the  great 
majority  of  human  beings,  is  revolting  to  com- 
mon sense  and  humanity.  Selecting  a  few  of  his 
chosen  children  to  be  saved  and  leaving  the 
rest  to  perish  in  their  ignorance,  is  an  extremely 
selfish  view  of  an  intelligent  God.  He  caused 
some  to  be  born  in  India,  some  in  China,  and 
others  in  Europe,  Africa,  America,  and  in  the 
far-distant  islands  of  the  sea;  they  are  all 
His  children  and  they  are  all  as  dear  to  him  as 
are  the  Jews.  He  speaks  to  each  of  them 
through  the  same  channel,  whether  he  be  a 
Brahmin,  Buddhist,  Chinese,  Mohammedan, 
Christian,  pagan  or  heathen;  "  In  Him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being."  He  is  above 
all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all. 

"Abraham,"  says  Max  Muller,  "was  the 
first  we  have  any  record  of  who  could  raise  his 
soul  to  the  contemplation  of  a  Perfect  Being 
above  all,  and  the  source  of  all.  With  pas- 
sionate love  he  adored  this  Most  High  God, 
maker  of  heaven  and  earth."  The  mind  of 
Abraham  rose  to  a  clear  conception  of  the 
unity  of  God  as  excluding  all  other  divine  be- 
ings; yet  if  we  will  examine  the  expressions  of 
this  great  Arab  chief,  as  described  in  the  book 
of  Genesis,  we  can  see  at  once  that  he  was  a 
great  medium  and  a  theosophist,  who  held  con- 
verse with  the  spirits,  the  same  as  our  modern 
mediums.  When  they  told  him  to  sacrifice 
his^on  Isaac  he  was  ready  to  do  it  under  the 


108 


firm  belief  that  it  was  the  voice  of  God,  when 
he  heard  another  voice  that  told  him  not  to 
kill  Isaac,  that  there  was  a  ram  tangled  in  the 
vines  near  by.  This  was  a  clear  case  of  clair- 
audience. 

Mr.  Renan  says  the  Indo-European  race, 
distracted  by  the  variety  of  the  universe,  never 
by  itself  arrived  at  monotheism.  The  Semitic 
race,  on  the  other  hand,  guided  by  its  firm 
and  sure  sight,  instantly  unmasked  divinity, 
and  without  reflection  or  reasoning  attained  the 
purest  form  of  religion  that  humanity  has  ever 
known.  The  Hebrews,  like  the  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians,  were  divided  between  monothe- 
ism and  sabacism  or  star-worship.  The  Se- 
mitic, like  the  Aryan  races,  had  a  confused 
idea  of  one  Supreme  God  behind  all  the  sec- 
ondary deities. 

Pure  monotheism  appears  to  be  a  direct  reve- 
lation to  Moses;  and  even  in  Jehovah  we  are 
led  to  believe  that  Moses  gave  him  more  of  the 
attributes  of  a  big  Moses  or  man  than  that  of 
an  All  Wise  and  Supreme  God. 

Christianity,  as  soon  as  it  became  the  reli- 
gion of  a  no-Semitic  race,  lost  much  of  its  mo- 
notheism and  tended  to  pantheism.  They 
added  to  God  "all  above,"  and  the  God 
"with  all,"  the  God  "in  us  all."  The  new 
Testament  is  full  of  this  kind  of  pantheism, 
God  in  man  as  well  as  God  with  man.  Jesus 
made  the  step  forward  from  God  with  man  to 
God  in  man;  "  I  am  in  them,  thou  in  me." 
The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  this  idea  of 
God,  who  is  not  only  will  and  power,  not  only 
wisdom  and  law,  but  love  of  God,  who  desires 
communion  and  intercourse  with  his  children, 
and  who,  therefore,  comes  and  dwells  with 
them.  Mohammed  teaches  a  God  above  us; 
Moses  teaches  a  God  above  us  and  yet  with  us; 
Jesus  teaches  God  above  us,  God  with  us  and 
God  in  us. 

Christianity  teaches  of  a  Supreme  Being  who 
is  a  pure  spirit.  It  is  a  more  spiritual  religion 
than  Brahminism,  for  the  latter  has  passed  on 
into  polytheism  and  idolatry.     Christianity  is 


more  flexible  and  is  more  capable  of  becoming 
able  to  supply  the  religious  wants  of  all  races 
of  men,  therefore  it  is  fitted  to  become  the 
universal  religion  of  man,  it  being  a  composite 
made  up  of  all  the  previous  religions;  and  con- 
sequently it  is  an  improvement  on  all  the  other 
religions. 

Jesus  Christ  was  a  man  born  a  seer,  a  pro- 
phet and  endowed  with  remarkable  mediumis- 
tic  gifts,  which  were  improved  by  development 
by  the  assistance  of  the  spirits.  He  was  mis- 
understood by  his  immediate  followers,  and 
was  imputed  to  be  something  superior  to  man, 
and  his  deeds  were  exaggerated  by  their  unrea- 
soning credulity.  Elevated  above  the  multi- 
tude by  his  superior  spirituality,  he  was  quali- 
fied to  be  a  teacher  of  the  sublime  inspirations 
which  flowed  into  his  receptive  mind  from  wise 
and  pure  spirits,  who  made  him  their  mouth- 
piece to  the  masses.  Pure  and  spiritual  in  his 
life,  he  was  prepared  for  rapid  progress  as  a 
spirit;  and  now,  with  other  ancient  prophets 
and  exalted  men,  he  holds  a  place  among  celes- 
tial spirits,  having  experienced  his  second  spir- 
itual birth  and  become  a  dweller  in  the  third 
sphere. 

Peter,  in  Acts  ii:  22,  says:  "I  see  in  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  a  man  approved  of  by  God  among 
you  by  miracles,  wonders  and  signs  that  God 
did  in  him."  "  I  and  my  father  are  one;"  one 
in  purpose,  one  in  spirit.  He  worshiped  in 
spirit,  and  he  never  lost  sight  of  the  spiritual 
world.  God  did  not  speak  to  him  from  with- 
out. He  feels  that  God  is  in  him.  He  needed 
no  sound  of  thunder,  like  Moses;  no  revealing 
tempest,  like  Job;  no  familiar  oracle,  like  the 
Grecian  sage;  but  he  consciously  lived  in  and 
with  the  Father  in  the  spiritual,  as  he  was  en 
rapport  with  the  Divine  mind,  which  permeated 
all  the  whole  universe.  If  man  would  live  as 
Christ  directed,  and  in  harmony  with  natural 
laws,  he  could  converse  with  angels  (spirits)  as 
they  did  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  Christ  and 
the  apostles. 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 


J* 


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